Away to Stourbridge

Match Report > Click Here

The result says it all, it was a completely different game than last week. As such, you have to give credit to Stourbridge who were a different proposition and were clearly determined to make amends for last Tuesday.

That said, we did start reasonably well, but after the first 10 to 15 minutes, and even though we got the equaliser, we seemed to go from starting bright to lacklustre. Not sure why, but possibly we weren’t completely in the groove as we didn’t play on Saturday. Also, the pitch was heavy, but it’s the same for both sides and they adapted better with the conditions.

I felt that Stourbridge were particularly impressive going forward, especially on the right hand side and their front three were really on their game. We seemed to lose it a bit in midfield, and as such let Stourbridge boss that part of the game.

At half-time, I felt with the scores level that we may kick on and get our game going, and things may have been different if Steve Gentle had tucked a golden opportunity away to put us in front. His header from 6 yards out should have found the back of the net, but that’s how it is, and at times, it just doesn’t go for you.

The second goal for Stourbridge was a kind of wonder strike and caught Zak Barrett off guard, and at that point really it was game up, as with it being so late in the game I couldn’t see us getting back into it.

Overall, it was just one of those performances that we are going to have to put to bed. These things happen and I’ve told the players to focus on the game against Bashley on Saturday. They will be tough opposition as they have come back into the mix of late and beat Nuneaton on Tuesday night, so we will have to be on our game and we must put in a better performance with more energy than we did on Tuesday night.

Ricky Miller came on for a run in the second half and did OK. The situation with Jamie Barker is that he may be on the bench for Saturday, but it will depend how he does in training on Thursday night. Supporters may remember Milton Elenge who was with us in pre-season. He is back with the club as a trialist at the moment, and there might be a chance he will feature too.