I don't know how many 'get out of jail free cards' you get dealt in a season but we have now used up two of ours in consecutive weeks. Whether it was down to us, them or a combination of both, Ramsfield were not the relegation fodder that we were perhaps over confidently expecting. They were not the best footballing side that we have played but they were fully committed and well organised and in the end we were very fortunate to grab all three points.
They were given the perfect tonic of a goal start in the twelfth minute when a cross shot managed to evade all in its path and creep in at the far post. Even this didn't provide the wake up call that was urgently needed and the lead was doubled on twenty seven minutes when another cross from the right was this time flicked in at the far post. It was poor defending for both and we will need to get back to the tightness that we showed in this area for the games coming up. In between times we had created chances, including a great strike from Peter Bukovec that hit the bar, but again we failed to deliver the end product. As the end to the half approached it was clear that we needed to get back into the game before the break if we were not going to make things extremely difficult for ourselves. Fortunately we produced our best passage of play at this time and rewarded when some good interplay between Wardy and Peter resulted in the ball finding Matt Lawrence in the box who turned and shot into the bottom corner.
At half time we emphasised the need to use our natural width and pass the ball round them, too often we over elaborate and try to hit the difficult pass or shot. To be fair the team followed the advice and the half was pretty much one way traffic as Ramsfield did their utmost to hold on to the lead. The equaliser came on the hour when we were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and Alun Evans, who had replaced Chris Mearing shortly before, placed the ball over the wall and past the outstretched keeper. Thereafter we were only thwarted by some great saves by their keeper James Larkin who pulled off two great saves from Peter and Liam Gent when they broke through. With time running out and two minutes remaining we were awarded a corner. Danny McGahan flighted it in towards the near post, all other attempts at this had previously been dealt with comfortably by Larkin, but on this occasion Evans was very alert and nipped in front of him to nod home. The relief was evident by the celebration.
At the end of the day we got the three points but realistically we will need to be much better in the weeks ahead.
Team:
L.Baker
A.Lindsey
M. Boorman
N.Coxon
I.Ward
M.Wood
M.Lawrence
G. Manser
D. McGahan
C.Mearing
P.Bukovec
Subs:
A.Evans (for Mearing)
L.Gent (for Lawrence)