Stockport County 2-2 Gainsborough Trinity (Skrill North)
Another full work weeks rest and training and the players are settling into a decent routine. A standard of fitness is now achieved and it is something we can work with. It seems to me that in order to get a top level of fitness we would need to go professional. That's a happy coincidence because that's exactly what I?m looking for to happy for the start of next season. Weather the board are into that idea will be a vital factor in any potential contract negotiations as the seasons roll on.
However that is in the future and more important the present is Gainsborough Trinity. After five wins from five, fifteen points, being top of the league I was keen to continue the good form. However a concern was the Manager of the Month award and the inherent curse that comes with it.
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There were two changes to the team with the return of Iain Howard and Aman Verma coming into the midfield in place of the Bobby Lofthouse, who drops to the bench, and the injured Ian Craney.
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This enables us to continue in the 4-4-2 formation in counter to Gainsborough?s likely 4-4-2.
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The game started lightening quick with Phil Jevons chipping the Gainsborough keeper after about 40 seconds. Dennis received the ball turned and played Jevons through the centre of the static Gainsborough defence and lobbed the keeper deftly.
At this point I was looking for us to dominate and sweep them away. In fairness for about fifteen minutes it was going that way. There were no further early goals and Gainsborough began to feel their way into the game a little bit.
After a shiny first fifteen the game became very scrappy and that didn't go away until the final whistle. It degenerated into a sloppy game with lots of stop/start periods due to numerous fouls, which for some reason the referee seems to think seven fouls by Barry Quinn in eighteen minutes does not constitute persistent fouling.
A theme for the rest of the game was both defences were solid in actual defensive work but poor in the recycling of the ball, with both my full backs especially culpable. This was combined with both attacks, though stretching the game, failed to really cut through and create chances.
That being said Gainsborough got themselves an equaliser. Charnock fouled Williams and conceded a free kick about thirty five yards out. The free kick was knocked forward about five yards and Charnock got Williams again. From the second free kick Williams thumped it hard and more or less straight at the keeper who, it looked like, miss judged it and attempted to punch it away. Ormson somehow parried it the opposite direction and just inside the post.
The game continued in the established pattern of defences giving the ball away and the attacks not cutting through and turning the ball over and so forth.
At half time I told the men that they could still win the game and that didn't get the fire in the belly response I was after. I made no adjustments in the break. My reasoning was that as poor as the first half was, both sides, I felt our individual quality would create at least one or two chances.
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I did feel that if it didn't improve I could change it around at the sixty minute mark when my first scheduled substitution takes place.
The second half unfortunately continued in the same pattern as the first despite a tweaking of tactics, first going to an even more shorter neater pattern game with intent to pick the apart, whilst stretching them wider and then a more direct wider game with a shoot on sight option.
As the game wore on Gainsborough began to get space down the left. O'Halloran was not dealing with the winger at all and this was a concern. His fitness was dropping quick so I made a decision to switch Fagbola to the full back slot and replaced O'Halloran with Tuncliffe.
This did not stifle the aggressive wing play and on the seventy minute mark I was pushing the team even more forward. Not as much to get the winner but more to actually get some actual shots on goal.
We needed a spark to get us going forward and as it happens we got one. Fagbola was skinned again and delivered a sensible cross which both centre backs didn't really commit to going for and Barraclough rose to nod home inside the six yard box unchallenged. Needless to say I was not pleased.
From the kick off my guys looked interested. It is worth pointing out that at this point, 73 minutes in, there had been three shots by each side. We began to slick the ball about and began to menace their defence a little bit more and a couple of long range shots, blocked and wide, we were able to push in a few corners and the third rapid fire corner fell to a completely unmarked Tuncliffe at the corner of the six yard box and tapped into an empty net. The Gainsborough keeper was at the far post for some unknown reason and got nowhere near the ball.
From that point there was only going to be one winner, if there was to be one, and that was us. We had a lot more urgency but ultimately Gainsborough dug in and held on.
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I told the players that I wasn?t happy with that performance and that we should be winning games like that. There was a general acceptance of that appraisal.
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We retained the top spot in the league but the lead was reduced to three points. There's is an enormous way to go so far too early to begin to ice the champagne.