Match Report

We went into the game looking to make it 3 wins in a row and that’s exactly what we did. We were clinical and did enough to get victory, we also managed a clean sheet which is good. But there’s still loads of room for improvement. I’ll come onto that later (see below).

Georgeson finished to put us 1-0 up after just 10 minutes after some slack defending in the POW defence. We defended very well when called upon and Burkett had little to do in goal, Hardway and Belchamber were keeping the engine room stoked up nicely and tackled and used the ball intelligently, however Hussein and Wray saw little of the ball down the flanks. Webb put us 2-0 up from a free kick which he curled expertly into the bottom corner and that’s how it was at the turn around. Earlier in the half we had lost Georgeson to injury and Fryer came on to deputise.

POW came on much stronger in the 2nd half and it has to be said with better finishing could have drawn level or even taken the lead! Fryer virtually made the game safe with a smart right foot finish from just inside the area to make it 3-0. There was still about 20 minutes left and had we played as a team could have made it more however there were too many chances wasted by unnecessary selfish play around their box. Skrine got injured and was replaced by Milner and Adams replaced Wray. POW still managed to squander two more headers when it looked easier to score. However, in the end it was comfortable for us. Although I’ve mentioned missed chances by them our defence looked solid.

Negatives today: forwards still running one way looking for it over the top, not mixing it up enough looking to drop in shorter, too much selfish play around their box with people looking for glory instead of playing in a colleague, too much talking when Darren’s trying to tell you something - we need to shut up and listen lads! Concentrate at all times on our marking, they had far too many scoring chances in 2nd half. We spread the ball nicely at the back but look to knock it forward too early when it reaches the midfield area, we didn’t use the width of the home pitch at all, too much ball straight down the middle.

Positives: we won and got 3 points, our finishing was good, our overall defending was good, we cleared our danger areas well, we competed well, especially in the centre of midfield, we won a good share of headers (thanks Georgie, Crouch, Poynter and Laurent!). Our passing was decent as well and our movement off the ball was good.

Undoubtedly some of you may disagree if you’re reading this, but the positives we use to keep our confidence high and the negatives are things that we put right. Remember we are a TEAM, we need to make sure we continue to play as one. Just because we won, it doesn’t mean that everything’s perfect, we need to work on the negatives mentioned above.

But overall, this was a good performance.

Man of the match: Georgie Belchamber.