A bit of a strange one this - despite the decent sized crowd and a good turn
out from their fans (compared to most in this league) this was one of the
quietest matches I have ever been to - even when we were 2 0 up against one of
our big rivals for the play offs you could literally hear a pin drop. At the
end it was a bit better when we were clinging on to a 3 2 lead and down to ten
men but it was still subdued.
Douglas stayed at right back and Snodgrass kept his place up front alongside
the returning hero Beckford. He showed with two goals, another one given
offside and one miss, how important he is to us, however once again his
petulance and general attitude gave his critics ammunition, but sod them he is
our most important player and him keeping fit and on form will be the key
element in us going up.
Robinson also went off injured early on and was replaced by Johnson when it was
still 0 -0.
The game was fairly poor with both teams giving the ball away unnecessarily but
was a bit end to end. Then we got the breakthrough - Howson and Snodgrass
linked well and put the ball across to Becks who got ahead of the defender and
poked it home just inside the post. Then a few minutes later it could and
should have been game over. A freekick by Snoddy - a player who has come on
leaps and bounds, he gives his all and has the skill to back it up, although he
does take the wrong option too often - played it short to Johnson and after a
bit of bouncing about it ended up in their net - no one round me was too sure
what had happened but it was a goal so who cares ?
It should then just have been a case of seeing out the remaining 10mins of the
half. but once again our suicidal tendencies struck - a long ball was being
shepherded by Parker back to Casper, no danger at all but somehow they made a
right mess of it and the ball fell to Hooper who tapped into an empty net -
very similar to the mess between Casper and the defender against Carlisle. Fans
near me all screamed that Hooper had handled it but I did not see it if he did.
We then seemed to play 5 or 6 mins extra even though the board said 2mins.
So instead of going in at half time, job done we had given them an undeserved
life-line and didn't they take it. Second half they were the better team and
got an equaliser when Rui and Parker contrived to lose the ball by the
touchline and Hooper took it off them and ran at Naylor. Despite being
surrounded by a pack of defenders he got off a good shot and suddenly it was 2
2 and we had thrown away a 2 goal lead.
The game deteriorated with lots of fouls and niggle both on and off the ball
(including a spat between Beckford and Howson) and the ref seemed to lose all
control - he was poor throughout. Grayson to his credit, decided that one point
was not enough and sent on Trundle for Kilkenny (who had done OK) and it
worked, although Trundle was again largely peripheral he did show one or two
good touches and we got the third. A lovely ball from Snoddy found Becks just
inside the area and he took a couple of touches and hit it home - good finish.
We then had the chance to wrap it up when Delph had a good run but instead of
scoring himself he threaded the ball through to Beckford who finished well but
was offside.
Howson then got himself sent off for a second yellow - it was a rash tackle and
deserved a card but the ref ran over and could not get his cards out quickly
enough - he really seemed to enjoy brandishing the red !
It was then all hands to the pump and Grayson brought on Lubo for Trundle to
kill time \ shore things up.
They had a couple of headers over and knocked on the door a few times but we
stood firm and got a hard fought and just about merited 3 points.
And so on to Oldham on Monday - lets hope Beckford does his usual and scores in
front of the cameras. Funny that Oldham did the same as us yesterday being
dragged back from 2 -0 to 2 -2 and then going on to win.
Credit to Grayson - but get us a right back quickly - Douglas tried hard but is
not the answer. For me Snoddy was marginally man of the match over 2 goal
Beckford. Casper was another who showed his good and bad sides -awful for their
first but pulled off a tremendous save later on.
Naylor continues to make a big difference but did struggle with the second goal
when the lad ran at him.
Dave
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Sorry Macca - it's the curse of Bates old lad
