Chelmsford, home

Gutsy win in the end after seemingly throwing away a decent 1st half performance. In control and deservedly ahead we failed to nail the game, slowed it down rather than upping the tempo, we haven't the quality to hold out that long, but we seem to have goal scorers and should have pushed on.

Feared the worst going behind and that Chelmsford's physicality would come through, but fair play we manufactured a couple of decent chances and won the game. I guess we are doing the best with our resources and trying to ensure we don't get into physical situations. We can play but still a lot of work to do defensively. Henry handling fine but think Clarke will handle the corner pressure better.

3 wins out of 4, lets hope we add a bit of power to our approach to Swindon S on Saturday, they will certainly have realised our weakness there. Wilson makes a huge difference but dare JG risk him with key league games coming up. Anyway, another win if not a wholly enjoyable watch, and £3750 in the bank.

I would be very reluctant to risk Wilson against Supermarine, especially with the Chippenham and Hungerford games so close together. Will be interesting on Saturday to see what Dave Pratt makes of our defence.

I thought we overcame our lack of physicality pretty well overall, but I do wonder about our corner routines though. I know the short one into the box produced a goal recently but a couple of times last night we played them back almost to the halfway line. I accept that we don’t have a lot of big players to put in the box, but as the own goals prove if you put the ball in there anything can happen.

Shouldn’t take away though from some battling performances recently and do feel that we may have turned a corner, especially when you consider the players who were missing.

Pretty much agree with Luton there except I thought it was an entertaing game. I think a lack of fitness showed second half with one or two which is why we slowed it down.
Agree about the corners. A rethink desperately needed there.
Would have liked to see the ref protect the lino though, he took a lot of unwarranted abuse.

Weird one because unlike Saturday when every attack against us felt like we'd concede, I thought we defended much better. Other than their goals I think Chelmsford had one or two near misses and we stopped more crosses coming in. Taylor had his best game to date and don't think Grant did much wrong, a heroic effort to complete 90 after six weeks or so out.

We still desperately need bodies back. We've made two subs in the last four matches, both enforced, and looking at who we had to call upon, I don't think I would have done much different. The longest we've trailed in those games has been 6/7 minutes and it helps that we are making flying starts - scored a lot of early goals this season.

Although there isn't much money in it yesterday was a great confidence booster. Just important to not undo it on Saturday. Chippenham will now go into both games against us well rested as they don't play this weekend or on the 28th as they're the odd team out, so it's another reason why we are desperate for our players to stay injury free. I would name Wilson on the bench Saturday and throw him on if things aren't going our way. Fortunately Conway is on fire and ironically we've won more games without Wilson than with him this campaign. He's been class but it proves we can cope.

I thought it was a very entertaining game and thoroughly enjoyed watching a faultless stream.
Conway seemed to take a more physical approach and it paid off. He protected the ball well and played off the last defender excellently. Both goals were superbly taken, holding off defenders and arriving in the right place at the right time to meet pinpoint crosses. He got good support from the midfield and despite a few stray passes we moved the ball pretty crisply.
We matched them physically all over the pitch and that is saying something when you realise how YOUNG many of our players are, the demands over the last week and our threadbare squad.
Henry looked very at home and also took command of crosses which gave me a lot of confidence. His near post block from Morgan was also very well timed, so I guess he was really overdue his chance.
We didn't take off in the same way in the second half and paid the price for that, but as others have said, the team have been really tested recently and tiredness is bound to be an issue. I thought Tom Smith was the real engine of the team, but he was well supported by strong performances from Dean (who I'd not seen before), Taylor, Grant and Ryan Harley in particular. However, there were no weak performances, even though we conceded another two goals and the corners are baffling.
Good signs of team spirit and resilience and I can't emphasise enough how impressive that is with such young players in abundance.

I think the Headmaster has summed everything up exactly. Obviously our views are limited by reliance on the streaming rather than actual attendance that allows a complete view of the proceedings.
After the match at Chelmsford it was mentioned that we would need to pay particular attention to Sherringham. Well it seemed he had very little involvement so it's diificult to know if our defenders ( particularly Jack Batten) countered his threat or was it the fact that he is a bit inconsistent. There must be a reason why he has been loaned out.

Well we have another game to look forward to this weekend. Also we now seem to have a team that can play at a skill level that can compensate for its lack of physicality.

The reason the loanees are here is to learn from the physicality in this league. Well they are getting that in spades. Tommy Conway was a head shorter than every one of the back four as well as several stones lighter. But he put them to the sword. There were some very hefty challenges on our lads particularly Taylor but they just got on with it.
We are physically smaller than every team we play so it has taken us some time to deal with that.
Secondly it is noticeable that they are playing more as a team. Harley and Dean allowed Frankie to sit and protect the back four and he was better for it. The defence is not solid but you get the sense it is coming together. They just have to cut out the mistakes.