Just got back. 12 hour day so pretty shattered.
As for the game, I feel the result flatters us somewhat. A replay probably would have been fairer on balance, but we took our chances whereas they did not, thats football.
The opener was a bit weird - I thought Eunan scored it but apparently Danny did - that's what happens when you have the sun directly in your face! It was one of 3 chances we created in the first half - Stevens should have done better with an earlier opportunity but sliced it, and Morris rushed an effort when he had more time than he probably realised. They looked quite good - the front four of Mendy, Clarke, Bowery and Westcarr worked well and Whitaker seemed to find space all the time in the middle, more so in the first half. They should have equalised after Bobby dropped a cross but thankfully Oastler cleared off the line. At half time I'd have said we were deservedly ahead, but it was a tight game that could have gone either way in the second half.
They were going to come at us from the off in the 2nd half, and they did - we looked alot deeper than before, 11 men in our own half for alot of it. Their back line was on the half way line and it was difficult for us to do much as Howe isn't the fastest so couldn't break the offside trap effectively, and was caught offside several times. Eventually their pressure paid off, a decent header by Bowery that Bobby couldn't do much about. At that point I feared the worse - thinking we'd go down 2/3-1 by the end. We didn't look like scoring, and the pressure continued, but no more clear chances were really made. Then, Morris did his best thing of a poor game, playing a perfect through ball for Howe to run on to - he outmuscled two defenders, calm as you like rounded Soderberg and into the open net - unbelievable! Totally against the run of play. Cue wild celebrations, and home fans finding the exits. A bit more pressure - we totally nullified our attack by replacing Stevens, Morris and Howe with Rowe-Turner,McPhee and Taiwoeful, who still managed to be bad in the 5 minutes he was on. He passed it straight out of play when we could have broken away again, and also managed to get outpaced when played through. Still, two minutes from time Nicho bends an absolute corker of a freekick into the top corner. I've been saying we need to shoot from freekicks more often as Nicho has a mean left foot, and that was a fantastic goal.
Great turnout of Gulls, about 350 I think - good noise at the end too.
Oh, and I wormed my way in for the under 18 price saving a fiver! Ideal!
. Even though its 2011 now and would be jan 2012 :slap:
Sorry mate but i weren't in the tup, planned to go but had an unexpected bout of IBS after last nights Germanic alcoholic fluid intake so didn't leave the house til 1.30 ish. Sorry to hear about Spain mate, like todays result for us i didn't see that one coming. My Wednesday mate was p****d off too as he had a four timer with Carlisle, Notts, Sheff Utd AND Chesterfield! Serves him right! :devil: Hope you enjoyed the game too DonnyGull and had a safe journey back from these here parts. COYY!!!
