County v Eastleigh: Match Thread (17/08/2019)

Feeling a bit more confident
After beating Barrow now. I
Can see us edging
This one 2-1.

Huge confidence boost from Tuesday night.
Get the early goal and settle the nerves. 2-0 County

i think it was mostly fury that the barrow players seemed to con her a few times. but loud indignance is also part of the game, part of the drama. people work themselves up in order to be more a part of the spectacle, enjoy it more. i always think there's an element of it that it's an act, and it allows people to behave in ways that they can't during the working week. the mass fume definitely helps the atmosphere, and gives individuals a convenient culprit if the result isn't what they want. i limited myself to laughing sourly at how quick their 'keeper suddenly was with the ball once we were ahead...

3 points and a clean sheet - fantastic! While Tuesday night had the on-pitch excitement and a better atmosphere in the ground, today was a really solid performance with far better game management. This was the kind of professional performance that, if consistently achieved, will establish us in this league.

Eastleigh were as organised as Maidenhead (from the TV view I had of the latter) and had more technical players through the midfield and forward line. They played a pretty good 1st half and had some overloads created around Cowan (not his fault) which they should have punished us with. But perhaps their best chance was from a poorly dealt with long ball on Keane's side and Hinchliffe had to come to the rescue when Minihan had tried but failed to get in to cover and clear it.

Not that we didn't have the odd bright moment ourselves, but I was pleased to get into HT having witnessed a more rounded performance - Thomas's movement was top notch, Mulhern held his position more than on Tuesday night and Dimaio and Osborne were looking to do things more incisively.

In the second half, Dimaio started getting his foot in when he spotted the opportunities to do it and he was nicking the ball in not only decent areas (their half) but also doing the odd bit of important work back closer to home. It was turning into the kind of #10 outing that keeps your place in the side week-to-week, a performance the manager can start feeling that, for all the trickery, you can be trusted out of possession too. Really, well done.

Once they got some poor long distribution out of their system in the 1st half, Eastleigh began passing out from the back more and retained possession well. But we were organised and hard-working and they found it hard to penetrate. On the other hand, we were again quite poor getting the ball out from the back when looking direct. It was quite telling that, with 3 CBs often against 2 FWs, we didn't really use the wide CBs to take the ball forward that much. Whether that was a bit of loss of confidence after a couple of moments where we lost possession going shorter or not, I don't know. But we turned over the ball far too much by way of back-to-front play. However, and just as the football gods would create, it was via that method that our goal came. Dimaio (actually, probably Mulhern) controlled a long ball wonderfully and, when all the ground were shouting for Connor to shoot (he was central 22 yards out), he slipped in Thomas on his right. Thomas kept composed and hit hard and low to the 'keeper's left. 1-0.

The second goal was sublime. A throw on the left and Osborne let it bounce and run across him, hitting it sweetly past the despairing 'keeper. If there's a better strike this season at EP, it really will have to be a 'worldie' to beat it because it was absolutely outstanding.

Palmer did really well at the back, getting important set-piece headers away and generally out-battling his opponents time and again. But my MotM was Thomas. He wasn't just one player today, he was two or three. Offering width, offering runs behind Mulhern, linking play into his feet, getting back to wing-back positions. Last season I said that if we can't be out-worked then it's going to be very hard for teams to beat us. He was the epitomy of that today. and had the quality to boot.

JG's well-deserved calling-out of Bell's lack of running for the team on Tuesday saw him enter the field and, within 2 minutes, make more shuttle runs that he did on Tuesday. I can appreciate that sometimes it must seem a pointless task but he rushed 2 CBs one after another, they had no time to bring the ball down and we ultimately got it back from their clearances. When he rushed their 'keeper, we ended with the throw-in in their half. He even defended brilliantly in our own box, receiving a pat on the back from Hinchliffe. A lack of experience was probably to blame for losing the ball up-field, but I can forgive that because he did help his team today. Well done.

And a shout-out for Festus Arthur. More minutes on the board and he too did well as a sub. Possible his only mis-step was staying in as a CB for a second phase which left Keane coming out into DM (and fouling outside out box) since their was no-one shielding. The best thing was that he (Arthur) had a presence. It felt like someone 'proper' was entering the pitch. He was shouting to team-mates and it kinda helps that he's physically a bit of scary-looking fella most #10s will think twice about going into challenges with.

So, credit to JG and the boys. Good tactics, good changes which did impact the game and at the right time too, and some of the attackers stepped outside 'their' way of playing today and, in difficult moments, dug in - do that each week and it's what earns respect on and off the pitch.

Very well done.

Remember, highlights on BT Sport at 7.30pm but, Osborne's goal is on this clip...

What a strike from Dimaio!

Cheers for posting, Duds & cheers for the replay, H - thoroughly warranted!

It'll kick off on twitter, matey, that's for sure!