Shortwood v City

As Bjork sang....It's so quiet! Any news?

That's 8 shots on target for City (first in 2nd half) vs only two for Shortwood.

Thanks Gerry. This internet connection is so slow.

Still going for it, Benny just fires over. 3 in 3 for him. Benny the Ball ??

Patten for Pratt. He must be due a hat trick at Bromley !

Stearn for Watkins

It seems that some of our players are hitting form at the right time! The partys over, turn out the lights.

Boring City cruising 3-0 up away in crucial Cup tie- how often does that happen ? Lol

Taylor for McCootie, it really must be over.

3-1 in 90m

Excellent result for City- despite late show from Shortwood in added time-with goals in 6th, 38th and 54th minutes. Interesting flurry of yellow cards in extra time. Well done, boys.

City win 3-1, see you at East Thurrock unless you wait for replay.

Excellent City performance, utterly dreadful referee. Roll on East Thurrock!

Well that was almost a stroll in the park. Shortwood must have burnt themselves out on Saturday, as they offered virtually no resistance to a dominant City. A superb team effort, with Pratt and Watkins running the home defence ragged. Hopefully we'll just get away draws from now on...

Er why 'Benny?'

He's a big mate of Adelsbury...

eh?

Not you, LutonRoman - see his post on page 1

That was the scoreline I believe would have occured on Saturday if we'd taken some of our early chances, and they hadn't scored with their first effort.

McCootie's early goal settled us down, and seemed to deflate them, City were all over them and fair play to the keeper for keeping the score down, an enjoyable away trip, onwards and upwards (eastwards) to East Thurrock it is.

Credit to the management team also. Saw a change needed against Poole.....Bowman....and then against Shortwood....McCootie.

Agreed. I don't imagine in terms of chances created there was much difference in the two games, but we stuck two away before they had a sniff and the true gap between the sides was apparent.

I guess after such a straightforward win it is a bit churlish to moan about the ref but he took ineptness to a whole new level. Thankfully it didn't matter but on another day the type of decisions in both games could have cost us, with the potential knock on effects that would have had.

I have never seen so many 50-50 decisions go against us in one game. Every time two players slid together and the ball went out the decision went in their favour. I'm guessing Nick McCootie must have irritated him off the pitch before going by the weird vendetta against him. The booking for handball was ridiculous, this after he was flattened when challenging in the air with the free-kick going the other way. And then looking like he'd be sent off for limping off after he was subbed.

One thing he did get right was that Watkins wasn't fouled. I had a decent view and just looked like a decent strong challenge to me from the otherwise pretty limited full-back. Blatant corner though, I basically spotted the ball up awaiting for it to be given.

I personally wouldn't have had any complaints if Patten was sent off at the end and going by the earlier calls, I was half-expecting it.

Hopefully the Watkins injury isn't as bad as it looked, he had quite a hefty ice pack on his ankle after the game.

Yes, a very pleasant club. But what a nightmare to get to! I wasn't the only City fan who did a tour of the surrounding dark country lanes beforehand, having stupidly relied on satnav. A few signs from the A46 wouldn't go amiss. And as for walking down that lane away from the ground - surely the tv money from last year's vale match could pay for a bit of lighting there.

I used maps on my phone which fortunately guided me straight into the entrance.

The car park could have done with a bit of lighting as well. At least the floodlights in the ground are good, I'm guessing having an evening game televised meant they had to upgrade them.