Match Report

It was an ideal day for a football match, a decent glow of autumn sunshine and a pitch to play on which was sublime. Our groundsmen Bunny and Keith Beston have done a brilliant job.

There were no major absentees for me to worry about and even had the luxury of politely agreeing with Savo not to bother getting changed up.

We started the game keenly passing the ball well. Danny Holmes slotted home after 10 minutes, after some good play down our right to put us in the lead. After another 10 minutes had passed we made it 2-0 after Jamie Williams latched onto one of Clarkson’s enormous goal kicks and rounded the keeper finishing from an acute angle. Were we in control? No, we made the rest of the game very difficult for ourselves. The scoreline remained 2-0 at half time. Craven Park could count themselves unlucky they had some decent openings and chances that they failed to capitalise on, it could easily have been them that had a 2-0 half time lead. I reminded the players about that at half time. The Craven Park skipper had caused us all sorts of problems with his movement in midfield and we weren’t picking him up.

The second half opened with both teams sharing possession and showing some decent skill and flair. We were awarded a penalty when Barnard was brought down in the box after rampaging down our left flank and was upended when about to cross. Holmes grabbed the ball and eagerly placed it on the spot, he finished with assured confidence. Surely it was game over now? No, back came Craven Park, scoring a second. Clarkson pulled off a brilliant save from an acute angled shot and they rattled the post but we held on for the result.

At times today our passing was superb, it seems we all want the ball when we are in possession which is good. When we haven’t got it, we must learn to work a lot harder to win it back or to learn about positional play and anticipation to a greater degree. Lastly we need to polish up on that final ball around the opposition’s box when attacking, too many times we chose the wrong option.

After all that, we got the 3 points and we are joint top after 4 league games, so I shouldn’t moan too much, but there’s always room for improvement.