County v Boston: Match Thread, Take 2 (20/03/2018)

'Take Five' - as previously posted on the original match thread - now up on COWS:

www.stockportcounty.com/take-five-2018-boston-united/

Play

Don't

it

Excellent win tonight, any win is!
Thanks Macc for your Twitter coverage, followed it all night.

A pretty terrible game but always a nice feeling to get a late winner and see utterly naff time-wasting opponents go home with nothing.

There was decent balance to our side in terms of how it 'looked' on the field - we had potential crosses, players who could go get the ball off the back line, pace and goalscorers... but there seemed very little understanding of how to progress the ball effectively. Too many balls went back to front and conceded possession and although we were running the ball, little was being worked into opportunities. We had an early chance from a corner - nice ball in from Dux was met by Ball with the flick. All that was lacking was having someone cover the back post on the basis a near post flick is likely to head that way. A few minutes later, Turner controlled excellently from a Hinchliffe kick. Duxbury crossed for Oswell and his athletic attempted put it over.

We had a few bits and bobs in the way of free kicks - Warburton wanted to take them was being told "Do your job" which left it for Thomas, who didn't really put in anything of note. Warburton eventually got on one (which he wasn't meant to) and hit the target.

Boston's main chances came from our gifts and that's a big problem still as better teams will be able to score such chances. In the 2nd half alone, Stott got too tight leaving them through on goal for a Hinchliffe save, Clarke missed his clearance completely in another and Cowan was very slow to deal with a ball near the corner flag leaving him to be brushed off and their player running into the box and hitting the near post. Beyond that, they got in a few crosses from Cowan's side but nothing really came of it. If they had put as much effort into trying to score as they did into embarrassing stuff (timewasting) then they probably would have gone home with a point.

We had more bits and bobs but some pretty basic passes were being overhit or hit too wide for players who would have been in a position to have a decent effort. However, our game was upped when Ball made an excellent steal after tracking back half the pitch. It lifted him and he started looking the part, impacting things as we all hope he can do across games. Stephenson's introduction was much needed and brought a bit of sparkle at the top end. Ultimately it was he who got the ball across and, after some involvement from Oswell, Warburton was on hand to bury it before he jumped into the crowd and got booked for his celebration.

So, a disciplined performance from all and we avoided wasting our own time or losing our own focus by arguing with the ref about the opponent's game plan. I think that was key because it could easily have ended a stalemate or worse if we had started playing into their hands. I think it's safe to say that there's no way we can afford the silly errors against teams who fancy winning a game of football but tonight there's at least some satisfaction that we've got all 3 points when not playing very well.