Cup Final 2 vs Eastbourne Borough

In other news, Plymouth fell a goal behind in the 83rd minute, only to come back and beat Portsmouth 2-1.

The Harvey Factor*

* he was an unused sub.

Aye, he's on

Well done cameramen, at least two defenders "assisting". GOOOOOAAAAAL!   

Yes, that's a more persuasive image, although of course it's torso not feet that matters. (Mind you it wasn't a free kick in the first place. I'll just grump off back to Sussex now.). See you all next season.

(And the beer is sometimes better than the football...) You are among our most welcome visitors at Priory Lane and I did also say some nice things about TP In my radio reports today. Proper football ground.

Oh, and feel free to beat Whitehawk...

A vital 3 points. Would like to a little match time forJosh Hutchison. I think he's one for the (near) future.

Yes on side indeed and a missed pen and 3 clear chances.

Good luck Eastbourne - already safe I'd say - always enjoyed the Harvey's down there.

And Dave's still also shows that is dreadful defending by the two Boro players to leave Jack and Watto goalside of them.

Just wish you'd install central heating on the terraces, Kevin. Easily the coldest ground in world football!

Having seen us play dreadfully at Maidenhead and Chelmo recently I'd say that was a pretty good performance. Despite some misses we didn't let our heads drop. We worked hard to keep the ball moving and to get it back when moves broke down. We put a few nice moves together and were unlucky not to score well before we did. Our defending was much better. I think Ball at lady back and Chas at centre is a much better combination and Phillips was hardly troubled. Sure it was tense but the players showed a positive attitude towards the game throughout and carried the ball forward at every opportunity. In my view this was a well-deserved victory. Onwards to Maidenhead.

Lady back???

Gary Owers suggests we might have to have Chas at centre back because of lack of options. Possibly he is concerned about his pace. But playing him there allows Ball to play further forward which I think is beneficial to the team. Ball was up against their No7 who impressed me a lot. Despite his skill though we stifled the Eastbourne threat entirely.

Another plus from the game was seeing two youngsters on the pitch for a game we very much needed to win and not looking overawed.

Agree Ben on the positives. Chas and youngsters brought about by injuries and a small swuad

I think that has Chas proved more of a revelation every time he has moved back a position. I did ask him yesterday whether he fancied being a goalkeeper but he just laughed. However, I disagree with Martin's analysis of our centre half situation. I don't think that Taylor is anything else but a coach who will keep his player registration if we really really need him a la Rollo. I also would to be in a position where we can choose whether to play Chas at centre-half rather than having to. Then, when we have to be really defensive, we can play him in front of two centre halves to shore up the defence.

I would still like to see another one, maybe two new centre halves or, at least, some idea of progressing some U21s into the first team through next season. Again, I asked Chas how he is enjoying playing at centre half and he said that it doesn't matter as long as the team get a result so the lads are obviously getting some lessons in fielding questions saying all the right things.

The angle on this page is great as I was absolutely sure that our goal was offside and was obviously wrong. Even if it had been, however, it would have been justice for the ludicrous offside decision earlier on in the second half by the same lino so well done to him, I suppose, for calling the goal correctly. I thought that the game was very even until we scored and we very strongly. We are two very well matched teams and a draw would have been fair if disappointing form a results point of view. However, I didn't see anything that made me think that Borough should be relegated nor, indeed, be any higher than they are so a defeat yesterday would have meant we deserved to have a very nerve-wracking time until Tuesday at the earliest. Borough were the team with the biggest range of sizes of players I have ever seen. From the lanky giant of a sub to the, erm, heftiness of the numbers 9 and 7.

Fair points about Big Chaz. Personally, I like to see players playing in their strongest positions whenever possible, and I must say that even his improved form in midfield since GO's arrival pale when compared with his performances yesterday and at Concord. As Yuffie suggests, it would be unwise to go too much on just these two games, but I wager that if this was a new arrival playing in pre-season we would all be assuming that he was nailed on for this position (well apart from me, as I wouldn't have seen the games! )

Centre back could be his strongest position but, as we know, he can play very well as a holding midfielder in front of the centre backs and pretty well as a creative midfielder behind the front two. Imagine having strong players in all those positions and being able to play Chas where we wanted. Indeed, you never know, he might even make a striker one of these days! He could be the new John Charles. I still find it difficult to believe he is only 23.

However, having said all this, he has had an inconsistent season, he needs to have a good full season next year and let's see if he is a contender for player of the season.

Chas invariably starts a season really (and I mean really) slowly.  Doesn't ever really seem to get going until after Xmas.  God knows what he gets up to in the summer.  Looking at his twitter account provides clues.