City 1 (Brunt 95m pen) v. Maidstone 1 (75m) full time att 1387

Artus and Kensdale start. Ball, Stearn and Hamblin on full bench.

Phew! Left that one a bit late gents! But well done for not giving up and rescuing the result.

Brunt is a ridiculously good penalty taker. Reminds me of Liam Kelly - I can see him missing one along the way (he did in a pointless SPC shootout) but I can't see him ever having one saved. Famous last words.

I'm going by the video and of his previous efforts. I was busy watching Fisher progress in the FA Vase vs Greenwich. Worse 3G than Oxford City.

Sorry Freeview Joe, but I disagree. I didn't see much in today's performance where we tried to get the equaliser, or even the win. I can only remember two shots on goal in the 90 minutes. Raynes in the first half (which was an easy save for the keeper) and the free kick in the second half which hit the post.

I really really hope we can have a good run of form soon, but had we not been gifted the penalty at the end of the game, I think a majority of the fans would have walked out of Twerton Park quite disappointed, or worse hacked off.

Fingers crossed for St. Albans next week

It appeared to my little group that there was a lack of confidence throughout the team.
Connor and Joe were incredibly unadventurous presumably to protect the centre halves. Far too often they got to just over the half way line and then passed back. We then played across the defence until someone made a mistake.

All Maidstone had to do was let us have the ball and then keep pressing until we dropped a goolie within sight of our own goal. I was expecting far more from them having been briefed by one of their supporters pre-game.

When Stearn was involved he generally showed great quality - his ball into the middle that resulted in the penalty was a peach - but he is not involved enough. He made some great runs but the build up was too ponderous to make the most of them.

Without a jet heeled player like Edwards you need the full backs to get forward to stretch the defence. It was too easy for Maidstone, although I thought overall we deserved sonething from the game.

Another game where as soon as the opposition realise we post very little threat they gain in confidence. We make opposition teams look good. Against a pretty ordinary Maidstone we didn't look interested until extra time and then it was probably because Maidstone decided to protect their advantage.

[quote="Notters"]Sorry Freeview Joe, but I disagree. I didn't see much in today's performance where we tried to get the equaliser, or even the win. I can only remember two shots on goal in the 90 minutes. Raynes in the first half (which was an easy save for the keeper) and the free kick in the second half which hit the post.

I really really hope we can have a good run of form soon, but had we not been gifted the penalty at the end of the game, I think a majority of the fans would have walked out of Twerton Park quite disappointed, or worse hacked off.

Fingers crossed for St. Albans next week [/quote

See Koppite's report re us coming close on 28 and 34 minutes

I think Notters and others are being a little harsh considering the incredible run of bad luck we are experiencing with injuries. Junior listed the players affected a few days ago but since then we've lost more. Watkins and Mann were on fire on Tuesday evening - ok, it was against Western Leaguers but they've both made strong starts to the season - Watto was injured in yesterday's warm up and Mann had to be replaced in the second half. Yes, we're badly missing Edwards but Sam Pearson was a constant threat to Billericay last week - he was on international duty yesterday.

I'm sure supporters would have been hacked off if we'd lost yesterday but it was good to see many stayed to give them a rousing ovation at the end.