Just back from the south coast - a great result and well battled Basingstoke. I'm still not quite sure how Floody managed to hook in his goal but he was almost responsible for the collapse of the South stand, such was the pandemonium in the crowd. Great finish and Macklin was unlucky not to make it two.
We then sat back and invited them onto us and they showed how good a side they were but just lacked that cutting edge. Smacked a bit of Arsenal ten years ago trying to walk the ball into the back of the net (I'm not comparing whitehawk to arsenal, just their over-passing philosophy).
Credit to Bristow for making the right changes when we were on the ropes a bit in the second half and felt we ended strongly. I think with the pace in their side, we can't play Browner and Harps in midfield at the weekend and I'd opt to fit Dunn in their somehow. On a really positive note, I thought both their centre halfs were ropey and fancy LEM to cause some problems at the weekend.
A complete copycat of the game just a few weeks ago had a few decent chances in the 1st half but then laid back and let them come onto us in the 2nd half and this time they duly got their reward and punished us thankfully we held on for 1-1
I now see Saturday's game as a straight knockout game whoever wins goes through.
This now means we have to win 2 games on the bounce which I do seriously think we can do theres no reason why we can't win it but 2 more wins now would mean were going up and what a achievement for Jason Bristow the players and the fans that would truly be
We just about got away with that. Stuart really earned his Player of the Year trophies with so many saves. Whitehawk played well but we really let them play. Game plan was just to drop behind the half way line & just keep our shape & look to hit them on the break. Great finish from Floody with our only shot on target. We will have to pass the ball much better & close them down more at the Camrose on Saturday to get the right result.
Have had a word with myself, following on from the twitter thing, won't make a light hearted joke anymore, my northern sarcasm obviously doesn't travel. Sorry for that. What a sterile world we have become.
Have had a word with myself, following on from the twitter thing, won't make a light hearted joke anymore, my northern sarcasm obviously doesn't travel. Sorry for that. What a sterile more tolerant world we have become.
corrected that for you Lennytee, no need to thank me
From the highs of a gutsy draw on Wednesday to the lows of today's defeat - two different performances but can't argue with Whitehawk going through. Thought we played ok first half but were sluggish for the first ten mins of the second and that ultimately cost us. It's been a long old season and some of the creativity that we had earlier in the year escaped us today. The second half performance was one of our worst all year but that's football.
I hope Whitehawk go up and wish them the best. They had a lot of pace in the side even though a few did go down very easily (a gust of wind took Torres down a few times over the two legs!) and Robinson had the direct running that we missed up front today. I really felt their two centre halfs were very dodgy but we just didn't get at them.
Anyway, been a great season. Fingers crossed we can kick on from here and replace the two Reading boys (who have both been exceptional) in the summer and learn from the defeat today.