Away to Clevedon

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It was a very long way to go, not just for the players, but for the fans as well, and they had to endure that first 45 minutes. We didn’t start very well and failed to get a grip on the game and I thought we allowed Clevedon to dictate the pace the whole first half.

They were fired up and if they played like that they wouldn’t be where they are in the league. It seems to be recurring theme in that teams are fired up when they play us, but we should by now be aware of that and able to cope.

I reminded the players before we went out that we shouldn’t read anything into league positions and that they have a few good players in their side, but as at any level of the game effort and endeavor always gives you a chance. Unfortunately some our more technical forward players were found wanting against some ragged defending.

At the other end, Zac Barrett was uncharacteristically edgy early on, but to be fair to Zac he has been peerless so far since he arrived at the club with his handling and kicking. He’s kept us in games at times with some great saves and to be honest he has turned draws into victories for us. We also have to remember that he’s only 20 as well. He did make the error early on, but I thought he coped with everything else that came his way pretty well.

I thought Dave Theobald and Lee Chaffey were both excellent, but the other two at the back were hesitant. Robbie Mason was left a bit isolated during the first half and didn’t receive the support he should have done from Ashley and Ramon, but still worked his socks off for us. I was disappointed with the two wide players during the first half in particular because we played with a wing-back system and really both of our full-backs should have been pushing on and getting two-on-one with their wide defensive players all the time. It didn’t happen though and that’s why I changed it in the end and went man-for-man with them.

The last thirty minutes, apart from a couple of breakaways from them, saw us generally camped in their half. We got off to a terrible start in the second half and everything you say at the break goes out of the window when something like that happens. It was a poor error by Ben Nunn to be perfectly honest with the first header. He had no-one within 15-20 yards of him and I’m not sure what he was trying to do. That error is compounded by Stephen Smith having an opportunity to smash the ball into their half, but he tried to play the ball out of defence and got blocked. They end up scoring with a deflected effort into the top corner.

Sadly, we didn’t look like getting back into the game. Their keeper made a couple of saves from Ashley and then an excellent one to deny Neil Sharp, but in between those saves we huffed and puffed. Lee Roache should have done better when he got through on goal and Ramon Calliste got into some good positions, but failed to deliver but, that said, we were lacking all over the park. We didn’t have enough guile in the final third or enough commitment in the penalty area in order to find a way back into it.

Despite losing, we are still only one point off the play-off places, but this was a real opportunity missed particularly bearing in mind the run we’ve been on, disregarding the Swindon Supermarine defeat, and the good form we’ve been showing. Yesterday the fixture should have been one for us to take control of and to achieve that you need all of your players on top their game, but yesterday we didn’t have that.

There were no injuries to report just some dented egos and the players need to realise that they need to battle and compete to get out of this league. A few times too many times this season we’ve lacked these qualities. I envisage one or two changes to the squad in the run-up to Christmas.

Next week sees us continuing our FA Trophy quest and I don’t see it as a distraction at all. We’ve won away at two very difficult places in the previous rounds and I don’t want to let it slip now at home. I want to see us put up a real fight next week and I expect a vastly improved performance as well. Hastings have been in good form, but like us they lost yesterday, so we’re both going into the tie in a similar frame of mind and wanting to get back to winning ways so it should be interesting.

Finally, well done to all the fans that made it all the way down to Clevedon and I’m very disappointed that they didn’t get the performance I know they’d like to see, particularly in the first half.