Post by another_ruined_saturday on Feb 11, 2014 1:09:08 GMT
missed the first couple of minutes (after my brother decided we needed to walk the wrong way round the ground from where we'd parked), and stood behind the goal we were attacking for the first half. i say 'stood behind', but of course i mean 'stood miles behind' given the running track. moke got himself into great positions on two occasions with jinking runs but then put both his shots over. as maccy said, we had a great chance from i thought jevons, but it may well have been oates as said; when the ball dropped to whoever eight or ten yards out with time to pick his spot, but only brought a fairly comfortable save out of their 'keeper with a low shot.
it was a completely different performance from -say- last tuesday's skill and dominance, but i thought we were the better, stronger side. they did have a couple of moments - one of their went round dibble in the right hand side of the box, but his centre was headed away. at half time, i thought that all three points were on offer, but it was only up the steps in the stand to have a word with macca, and therefore having a higher view on proceedings, that we could see just how bad the pitch was. macc's 'pudding' described it perfectly. looked to be cutting up much deeper than edgeley has, like it was much softer. unfortunately, it transpired that we were trying to sit in the 'home directors' seats (which were just the normal shitey seats, but with 'home directors' painted on the face of the step), so we moved down to the end county were shooting towards second half.
we didn't create masses of clear-cut chances, but oates had their centre half 'on toast' (copyright alan hansen) for pace a couple of times, and ian howard took the ball round their 'keeper, but didn't put enough on his goalbound shot which was collected by a defender. they hit the post at one point, although i'm hazy as to whether it was 0-0 or we'd taken the lead by that point...
...so to taking the lead...a.n. other (opinions varied as to whether it was oates, churchman or howard) went for the ball in the box and one of theirs challenged with a high foot. dunno if the ref was already giving it, but the linesman flagged a penalty. their 'keeper was trying to put jevons off by wandering out and pointing to suggest that the ball needed to be respotted, but jevons kept his composure and beat him easily. my brother didn't keep his composure and had hurtled off across the running track, dancing about on the touchline (i'm sure he'll enjoy it on the video). after that, and most impressively, we kept bradford pinned in their own half for ages. as the clock ticked down, they brought a decent save out of dibble and had a couple of corners coming up to full time. we were walking back down the side on the frosty -and slippery- running track so the move for our second was obscured for me by the weird, isolated dug-outs (twenty yards in front of the stand!), but i did manage to see howard round the 'keeper. i stood with both arms in the air, but had a brief moment of 'f***...he's missed it' before the ball rolled into the corner... arms stayed in the air.
not a great performance as such, but a great battling spirit and it was thoroughly deserved. i don't mind freezing my a_r_s off watching county when they're all committed. there's a togetherness about them as a team, and i like how AL's doing things - taking moke off for dicko when moke had run out of steam and he sensed that the game was there to be won. make no mistake - this is a proper transformation from two months ago, and good on the lot of them - players and staff alike. let's keep going game by game and dare to dream...i don't think we'll make it, but the way we are pulling out performance after performance - whether skillful and dominant last tuesday, or dogged and hard-working tonight, when the pitch didn't allow for much football - means that we can dream when we couldn't a few weeks ago.
another_good_night!
...and even better, i notice that pouchy's put saturday's highlights up. i'm going to freeze-frame my way through mcconville's sending off for at least 45 minutes...
it was a completely different performance from -say- last tuesday's skill and dominance, but i thought we were the better, stronger side. they did have a couple of moments - one of their went round dibble in the right hand side of the box, but his centre was headed away. at half time, i thought that all three points were on offer, but it was only up the steps in the stand to have a word with macca, and therefore having a higher view on proceedings, that we could see just how bad the pitch was. macc's 'pudding' described it perfectly. looked to be cutting up much deeper than edgeley has, like it was much softer. unfortunately, it transpired that we were trying to sit in the 'home directors' seats (which were just the normal shitey seats, but with 'home directors' painted on the face of the step), so we moved down to the end county were shooting towards second half.
we didn't create masses of clear-cut chances, but oates had their centre half 'on toast' (copyright alan hansen) for pace a couple of times, and ian howard took the ball round their 'keeper, but didn't put enough on his goalbound shot which was collected by a defender. they hit the post at one point, although i'm hazy as to whether it was 0-0 or we'd taken the lead by that point...
...so to taking the lead...a.n. other (opinions varied as to whether it was oates, churchman or howard) went for the ball in the box and one of theirs challenged with a high foot. dunno if the ref was already giving it, but the linesman flagged a penalty. their 'keeper was trying to put jevons off by wandering out and pointing to suggest that the ball needed to be respotted, but jevons kept his composure and beat him easily. my brother didn't keep his composure and had hurtled off across the running track, dancing about on the touchline (i'm sure he'll enjoy it on the video). after that, and most impressively, we kept bradford pinned in their own half for ages. as the clock ticked down, they brought a decent save out of dibble and had a couple of corners coming up to full time. we were walking back down the side on the frosty -and slippery- running track so the move for our second was obscured for me by the weird, isolated dug-outs (twenty yards in front of the stand!), but i did manage to see howard round the 'keeper. i stood with both arms in the air, but had a brief moment of 'f***...he's missed it' before the ball rolled into the corner... arms stayed in the air.
not a great performance as such, but a great battling spirit and it was thoroughly deserved. i don't mind freezing my a_r_s off watching county when they're all committed. there's a togetherness about them as a team, and i like how AL's doing things - taking moke off for dicko when moke had run out of steam and he sensed that the game was there to be won. make no mistake - this is a proper transformation from two months ago, and good on the lot of them - players and staff alike. let's keep going game by game and dare to dream...i don't think we'll make it, but the way we are pulling out performance after performance - whether skillful and dominant last tuesday, or dogged and hard-working tonight, when the pitch didn't allow for much football - means that we can dream when we couldn't a few weeks ago.
another_good_night!
...and even better, i notice that pouchy's put saturday's highlights up. i'm going to freeze-frame my way through mcconville's sending off for at least 45 minutes...