just back

Probably not the first back when i've finished writing this, ah well. Had really good chances to score through Coulson and hearn before we got the goal, i thought it was over the line, but unsure, but thought we were going to cruise after that.  Hardly threatened, they got the equaliser (which looked like rubbish defending but couldn't really see) then we made two baffling substitutions, duffy for elding, who i don't think had i touch of the ball and artus for soares, artus did alright, but didnt give us the attacking that soares did. Mason came on and looked good, having a decent volley, but team looked out of balance with him coming on for coulson. We could have won tonight, but a draw was probably a fair result, also they should have had a penalty in the first half, which we somehow ended with a free kick. Now looks difficult to get playoffs, ah well, good turn out, lets have a good end to the season!

293 of us there tonight: we didn't look any better than Tamworth, who are a team of part-time honest triers.

1st five minutes we looked good, then slowly we allowed them to dictate play and they passed the ball around better than us without doing much with it. Their midfield and attack were swifter than ours and although we coped OK we didn't look like winning much in the first half.

Ball wouldn't stick up front for us, Hearn ran a lot, Elding's first touch was often his last and Coulson just didn't get going although to be fair he hardly even got a decent ball to use. We had plenty of corners and although we scored from one we wasted loads, often hitting the first defender, especially in the first half.

A draw about fair. Bradley Wood played well, as did Conner Townsend and the two central defenders, couldn't see how they scored, too far away and the floodlights were crap.

Thought Artus was best player on the pitch when he came on, controlled and passed the ball really well. Tonights problem was defending too deep after the 1st 15 mins. Interesting I made it 14mins before a Tamworth player touched the ball in our penalty area at the start when we were closing them down early but then we just seemed to defend further and further back till Disley and and the new guy were constantly standing on the edge of our area. No one played really well and to be honest Tamworth seemed to have more skillful players than ours. Should of won, the ref was baffling but not particularly a homer, just seemed to lack that clever through ball and our corners were mostly dire.

Just to add to that, are the full backs told to lump it up or do they do it on there own accord? We seem to have done it for a few years now, remember newey used to always do it, but so many times townsend and wood had the ball instead of laying a short pass down the line or into the central midfield, they would loft it up to elding or hearn, which would usually be hard to control and we'd lose it. Just wish we kept it simple and on the floor in those cases.

Tamworth were very defensive tactically, well organised and they contained us pretty well and had pace to counter with...

We lacked the urgency of a team needing to win to keep pace with the Play-Offs, all felt a bit muted...

Looked a bad mistake for their goal - but if Pearson was pushed there may be some explanation, still think it was a gift...

Did it cross the line?  Wasn't convinced, but will take it, especially given the one on ones we missed - (mind you the difference in composure between Coulson and Hearn was massive)

We really are relying on others now - especially, it would seem, Darlington  

Definately crossed the line, no doubt about that. I thought Wood was really poor, if you have the ability the sling the ball in the box at a throw in why not do it?! He was at fault for the goal aswell, tried to shield the ball instead of knocking it out for a corner. I thought Wright was our best player by a mile. We started really well but after that the passing was sloppy and nothing stuck.

Oh well, next season we have a good base to build on.

Agree with most of what's been written, Tamworth wanted the point(s) more then us but we had the better chances and with a bit more guile we could have taken all 3. I had a good view of our goal, the ball was over the line, no doubts about that. A switch off at the far end resulted in them getting their goal but they threatened all night to be fair. A worrying aspect for me was the ammount of corners we got and didn't create a single clear cut chance from any of them. KHM looked good and should have been on sooner, I'll not get on the anti-Duffy bandwagon but I didn't see him do anything that Elding wasn't already doing. Liam looked sharp which was good but didn't get any decent support until the 2nd half.

Not impressed with being detoured though scuntsville on the way home either!

And to add to that, I thought the ref had a decent game, not great but better then some we've seen this season. She made a couple of mistakes in front of us in the 1st half but we were the recipients of good luck there. Did Rob Scott get her a bunch of flowers or something?

Quoted from Hameln Mariner

Agree with most of what's been written, Tamworth wanted the point(s) more then us but we had the better chances and with a bit more guile we could have taken all 3. I had a good view of our goal, the ball was over the line, no doubts about that. A switch off at the far end resulted in them getting their goal but they threatened all night to be fair. A worrying aspect for me was the ammount of corners we got and didn't create a single clear cut chance from any of them. KHM looked good and should have been on sooner, I'll not get on the anti-Duffy bandwagon but I didn't see him do anything that Elding wasn't already doing. Liam looked sharp which was good but didn't get any decent support until the 2nd half.

Not impressed with being detoured though scuntsville on the way home either!

You've done well to get back home so quick  though.....Tamworth to Hameln in a couple of hours is impressive. You must have really flown!  

Quoted from Hameln Mariner

And to add to that, I thought the ref had a decent game, not great but better then some we've seen this season. She made a couple of mistakes in front of us in the 1st half but we were the recipients of good luck there. Did Rob Scott get her a bunch of flowers or something?

Maybe she was good at her job? Credit where credit's due?