well i'd have bitten the hand off anyone who'd offered me five points from these three tough-looking opening fixtures. so on cloud nine (points), if my back wasn't knackered i'd be doing a jig of joy right now...
made a last ditch decision to go M62/M6 rather than M1/M42 as i did last time, cos it was shorter. oh trafford centre. i have never visited you, but i f***ing hate you. cost me half an hour queuing on the M60 so i had to resort to praying that i would get an (unlikely) untroubled run down the M6... wasn't too bad in the end, and i only missed about a minute of the game. went in the seats for the extortionate additional charge of £0. i aimed to extract maximum value out of my visit this time...
we made a moderate start in our shocking pink against watford (apparently). balls. was going to post a pair of pics from the non-league forum that show how closely modelled telford's away kit (which they wore at home today) was on a watford effort from the eighties, but i have...lost all my buttons, so i can't. the url is here anyway:
www.nonleagueforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=126&start=10 brilliantly i can't even post a proper link either. my fault entirely. i watched 'hackers' and got all excited...
roberts got done easily by their full back who fired a cross in which glover headed wide and should probably have buried. we attacked down the left and when the ball went in to dyson, he held it up, turned, and fired it in at the near post to give county an earlyish lead. hope we extend that youth loan, as he already looks very promising.
telford had the bulk of the rest of the half, without causing too many concerns. lewis montrose got a few really good blocks in and hurst took a knock as he came out to meet one of their forwards, but there wasn't much direct on goal.
second half and they turned the screw a bit. they had quite a lot of corners, but the two hairy moments were them unluckily hitting the underside of the bar, and a passage of play where the ball went into our box and every block dropped to another of their players, resulting in three occasions within the space of probably five seconds where i thought one of them would score. their big forward also missed the target from good positions on a couple of occasions.
we didn't do loads in reply, although dyson did well before firing one over, and odejayi did an absolutely brilliant bit of forward play from a quick break down our left. he chased the ball into the channel, knocked it past their defender (a certain mr lees), and from starting behind lees, powered past and then held him off. he cut inside somewhere near the penalty spot and took it to the side of their 'keeper. got a shot off that was destined for the unguarded net but one of their defenders managed a monumental clearance to keep it out. a really, really fantastic bit of play, and he also dazzled us (and telford's defenders) with some twinkle-toed footwork right in front of us in the seats. later, dyson, running diagonally in the box towards the corner flag, got to the ball before their 'keeper and could easily have constructed a penalty out of the incident. fair play to him for staying on his feet, but the angle was too tight and the 'keeper set by the time he'd gathered the ball.
neil young seemed to be responding to specific issues with his subs. jordan thorniley didn't look injured when he was subbed and i thought he'd been decent again. montrose had another quietly efficient game tidying up in front of the back four, but robinson, replacing him, was again a good option when defending a lead because he keeps and uses the ball so well. micah evans brought some new energy onto the right flank, and was left in a heap by the one bad tackle of a game which saw several county players booked, when he used a bit of trickery to go past their man. again, it was right in front of us and it could have been a red. i kind of gave their player an 'orange card' benefit of the doubt because i think it was partly that evans had displayed such quick feet that the tackle ended up being later than probably intended. then the usual nonsense of having to take the free kick down to ten men because evans had had treatment, even though it was a clear foul and their player was booked.
while it was a bit nerve-wracking watching us hold out for the final few minutes, there were no more massive scares, and then we were done. nine from nine eh? i quite like my new team... the players went off at the corner of the pitch between the away terrace and the away seats to loud songs and deserved applause. would have liked to give lees a clap, but their manager was giving them a b*ll*cking on half way, so we'll have to wait for edgeley.
most of telford's good attacking play came from their full backs. ours were under a fair amount of pressure. thought the centre halves were good again, but o'hanlon picked up his third booking in as many games. at this rate, he could still sit out the last game of august due to accumulation! rule and montrose were good, but often outnumbered in midfield, and telford seemed to have an advantage in there. garvin and ledsham were decent. really impressed with the two forwards today. odejayi held it up really well, and they both ran the channels to give us an 'out' ball; often making something from the meanest scraps. i'm told that neil young was pissed off at the performance in his interview. there's definitely something about that i like - he'll know we need to improve, otherwise there will be days similar to today on balance of play, but in which we take no points.
great start though from three tough-looking fixtures. another two coming in the next seven days, particularly the visit to nuneaton. four points from those two? i'd bite yer hand off!