County v Fylde: Match Thread (03/09/2019)
Sept 3, 2019 23:22:43 GMT
gazz, dudleyhatter, and 1 more like this
Post by another_ruined_saturday on Sept 3, 2019 23:22:43 GMT
stop Rowe shooting and no FKs!
so injury time was a bit fraught...
so much happened in the game that i don't know where to start. like a lot of successful teams they were both whiny and dirty. the ref was complicit by tending to find in their favour and walking away without even whistling at least once with a royal blue kitted participant crumpled on the floor after being launched into space. from the start of the game it was all them - they were building and we weren't.
and then we scored.
and then they scored one for us. this was a positive development.
jackson carried the ball from the left and hit it hard. couldn't really tell whether it was a shot or a drilled cross from my angle, but it deflected off a defender and beat the 'keeper all ends up.
i like our players to score, but i'm quite fond of a daft own goal as well. one of my favourite county goals was the equaliser at watford in carlton palmer's first game. they had been the better side, but it was undone when one of their defenders, just outside the six yard box, and without a county player particularly close by, swung at the ball, missed, and scored with his standing foot. right in front of the county fans. lovely stuff. finished 1-1, but any away point that season was much appreciated.
so tonight, a fylde intervention had far from the desired effect, and the 'keeper was standing, bemused, for the second time in a couple of minutes.
hinchliffe made a couple of confident saves, and spilled another couple but cleaned up, and we made it to half time unscathed.
into the second half and fylde were having loads of shots, but mostly from distance. still, on a wet surface, we reckoned that they'd get lucky with persistence.
bell hit an effort that went behind the railway end goal, hit the hoarding, and bounced back, making the net ripple. the cheadle end roared in celebration, but from a much closer position, we were well aware that we hadn't put the game out of sight. fylde eventually got their goal and i didn't expect us to hold out, particularly when we started the great retreat. i sort of understand it last five minutes and injury time, but half an hour plus including injury time is a bit much. thus began rorke's drift. and like at rorke's drift (according to michael caine anyway), fortunately the swarming attackers proved inadequately armed.
there were a couple of forays up the other end, dan cowan finding himself in an unexpected position (considering we were under the cosh) and hitting a lovely volley that brushed the side netting, and an attack featuring dimaio sprinting the ball upfield, osborne and mulhern alongside him in a promising trident. unfortunately dimaio's pass to the right was intercepted.
fylde players managed on a couple of occasions to run straight through the middle of the packed county midfield and defence and into our box. hinchliffe was out for one and we eventually got a tackle in for another. these were pretty alarming, but not so much as billy binhead and duxbury both standing over a free kick 22 yards out in injury time. who would i want to score less? i'd probably rather see gary bennett or wayne biggins bag into the cheadle end at this juncture. rowe only found the county wall.
thought the ref was going to play until they scored, and they were still getting most of the decisions. not conceding again may have been a defensive masterplan, and there were plenty throwing themselves in the way of things (well mostly palmer and keane to be fair), but some of the time it felt more like luck and commitment than any judgement. good to put one over them at edgeley park and just because i haven't mentioned it so far, it doesn't matter how many new stadiums they build, the fylde coast doesn't have the appetite. you can build it, they won't come.
not even really sure who stood out, but there were some moments of people chucking themselves in the way of things that i particularly enjoyed. we enjoyed luck for both our goals tonight, and i think the results are flattering the performances, but there are plenty of times when they don't, so b*ll*cks to that. i still think we're a mid-table or even lower mid-table side having a head-rush, but i'm not trying to decry our achievements so far - if we were mid table i'd be pretty comfortable with it, so might as well enjoy the upper reaches in this excellent start.