County v Aldershot: Match Thread (14/09/2019)

County down 2 nil before half time.what the hell was going on with the second goal! My notifications saying it was a goal,then it wasn't and then it was!

i quite enjoyed the liverpool v newcastle commentary on the way out, and some of the norwich v city commentary on the way back. it was the bit in the middle that i found a bit frustrating. after beating a few teams who were either well placed last season or already well placed this, we have had our noses bloodied two weeks running by teams propping up the division.

the first thirty minutes saw an inexplicably poor county. we were lumping it, they were playing it. there seemed too much distance between the midfield and bell, with us sitting a bit deep and not getting up round him enough to take advantage of the bits he held up or flicked on. the game featured three great goals, the first of which saw their player on the right of the box towards the pop side chest, turn, and volley sweetly past hinchliffe into the far corner. nice technique, but probably overshadowed by his mate a few minutes later who had a short run with the ball in an inside right position before hitting a howitzer from 25 yards that quickly flattened out and dropped past hinchliffe into the net.

so far, so dismal, and it could have been worse as they headed one too straight, then cut in from the left and hit a lovely curler which my mind's eye saw nestling in the far top corner until the hand of a diving hinchliffe flicked it over/round. a great save. even closer was an effort that palmer headed point blank at hinchliffe who managed to get something on it, the ball coming out to the edge of the six yard box and county having the huge let off of their player following in only hitting the post from close range.

the above paragraph is my particular frustration with today. i was hoping that even at 2-0 down, the fact that it had gone close to being 3 or 4 but wasn't, could be the opportunity for county. what it felt like first half was that their efforts were clean and ours were scruffy - they were getting themselves into promising positions and we were having to force our way in for any efforts of our own. that said, there were a couple of opportunities late in the half that could and possibly should have reduced the deficit, particularly right before half time when osborne had an effort which the 'keeper couldn't hold and then leesley's follow up from the edge of the six yard box was disappointingly weak.

you see a lot about players operating 'between the lines' at the top level. not so much this one, but i thought it was a feature of the first half. we'd already had a couple of warnings when their players had picked the ball up beyond the midfield but seemed to be in acres of space before the defence. then the second goal happened. i'm not sure whether we simultaneously managed to be too far from bell and leave too big gaps between defence and midfield (which seems improbable) or whether we were playing too deep as a reaction to their players exploiting space between the lines. either way, it made everything disjointed for us in an attacking sense.

second half was also quite frustrating, but it was an altogether better performance from county, as we began to knock on the door. in comparison, aldershot had no chances the calibre of those they'd missed in the first half. bully went off injured, and at first he was otherwise prone apart from slapping the ground with his hand as play went on. looked like a really bad one, so was pleased to see him limp off in the end after treatment, rather than being carried off. clearly a knee injury though, and i suspect he'll be missing for a bit.

palmer had a couple of headers from set pieces, and after i'd grumbled at half time that we needed to see more from leesley, i thought he had a good second half, firing corners in on top of the goalkeeper and having a decent effort himself. osborne had a reasonably decent low shot from palmer's chest pass, but the 'keeper gathered comfortably.

we'd brought jackson on for turnbull and piggott on for minihan, which in black and white looks odd, but there was some reorganisation, with us dropping to a back three and kean going into midfield. we had a couple of blocked efforts and a close in header that somehow drifted beyond the left post, but got back into it with a belter. piggott had already had a sighter, and absolutely lamped one that may have had some top spin, because similarly to their second goal it seemed to flatten out. i thought as the 'keeper wasn't moving significantly it must be going wide, but no: a proper belter that just left him standing as the ball passed him into the right side of the goal.

ben jackson had a great run down the left that saw him beat one man, and then when squared off against the next, i was hoping he'd win us a corner, but instead he played the ball past the man and cut in towards the box. he was brought down by the desperate defender and we thought it was a penalty, but the ref gave a free kick probably six inches outside the box on the left hand side. in injury time, there were groans (because of the rapidly trickling time left) when a throw in was left for dan cowan to run over and take. turned out to be our final near miss as one of theirs headed the long throw at his near post and it looked to be dropping in at the far post until another defender intervened to clear with his head.

thought hinchliffe's first half interventions kept the game alive for us to at least have a go in the second half. thought bell was 5% off being brilliant, but the 5% was telling. he held it up really well on loads of occasions, but so many times his lay-offs or passes were a couple of feet short so he only elicited groans. i thought he worked hard, but when he had lost it, because he'd put plenty of effort in, he didn't have a lot of puff left to close down very convincingly. he seems to be a lot of people's boo boy, and i honestly think he's going to be a decent football leagure forward. thought leesley was massively better second half, and both piggott and jackson added some threat when they came on. didn't think osborne was as influential as he has been, and that walker didn't impose himself enough either.

pretty frustrated with the result, but honestly, i was really pleased with how we changed it around second half. it was a different game, even if some of the grumbling seemed to indicate people thought otherwise. i've said a few times that results had been better than performances, so the last couple of weekends has probably been a reality check. in the end, after a pretty poor first half display, i think we should have got something out of it.

Cheers for the write-ups, fellas.