A draw against Gardeners is not the end of the world and still leaves the destiny of the title in our own hands. That said a win would certainly have put us in pole position but in all honesty we didnÕt deserve much more than the draw from a disappointing game. Both sides were without key players and although we looked to have the better all round side it was the Gardeners central midfield that was dominant and they restricted our ability to cause too many problems. We also didnÕt help ourselves with sloppy passing and at times bad decision making.
We had the better of the first half, particularly down the left where Danny McGahan was a constant threat and it was his direct run and cross that created the best opportunity of the half when Alun Evans failed to make good contact at the far post. The effect of the miss was compounded when Jason Barton completed a one two in our box and slipped the past the Chimp for the opening goal on 21 minutes. This brought a bit of urgency to our game and we were level four minutes later when Barry Leete played Danny in on a one on one with their keeper. The keeper made a good save from his initial shot but the block cannoned back to the edge of the area where Gunny was following up to brilliantly control a side foot past a defender and into the net. After that we didnÕt capitalise on our possession and the half closed at one all.
At half time we spoke of the bumpy conditions and decided that we needed to either play with some width around their central pairing or be more direct into the channels so as to get at their back four. It is fair to say that we did neither and as a consequence severely limited our impact on the game. In fact it was Gardeners who had us under pressure for a long period in the half and had a sustained spell of near misses inside our box that we did well to survive. Having got through that spell we had the better of the closing period and had two good chances to steal the game. The first fell to Alun Evans when Perko broke free and played him in with a one on one with the keeper. Unfortunately the pass ran too wide, closed the angle down and the shot went outside of the near post. In the final minutes a header from Paul Emblem appeared to be in until a lunge from their defender hooked the ball off the line. All in all a fair result that leaves everything still to play for. This week we have a double header at Blantyre where two victories are essential Š this would put us top with a bit of daylight and five to play.
Team:
L.Baker
M.Wood
M.Boorman
A.Lindsey
N. Coxon
R.Perkins
G. Manser
B.Leete
D.McGahan
A. Evans
M. Millins
Subs:
L. Gent (for Millins)
P.Emblem (for Perkins)
M.Lester (for Leete)