50 minutes in the car to the Thurrock Hotel, home of Purfleet F.C. 'Fleet are 6th in the League with 53 points from 32 games. Like City they have shown indifferent form over the past 2 months. They have won only once this year, they haven't kept a clean sheet since November and thay have conceded an average of two goals in each of the last 10 games. City, 3rd in the table, with 60 points from 33, will be keen to reproduce the form from the second half at Hendon to maintain contact with the leaders.
Cookie selected Wilmot in goal: 4 at the back: Evans, Moran, Naylor (C), and Lodge; 4 in the midfield: Kean, Hyatt, Challinor and Oakes; and up front: Martin and Young. On the bench: De Souza, Slinn, Standen, and Steve Castle. In the stand, injured: Campbell, Crawshaw, Brown, Gledhill and Smith.
This was just awful.
Saints first shot of the game came in the 40th minute when Martin fired high and wide from just outside the box. Two minutes later, Purfleet scored the only goal of the game when a through ball to Keeling beat the Saints' offside trap and the diminutive striker chipped over the advancing Wilmot to find the net despite the acrobatic efforts of Naylor to clear the ball on the line. 1-0.
You probably think that it's easy writing these Match Reports. You might think that it's easy being the Manager of the Team. Not today it isn't.
It's difficult to take anything positive from this game.
The back 4 were solid enough in defence and well marshalled, playing the offside trap well throughout the game. The back 4 scored 7/10 today. That's it.
Only on 2 or 3 occasions did City manage to string 2 or 3 passes together in their opponents half. To me, there was a distinct lack of invention, team-work and effort. When anything was tried, it didn't come off. It couldn't have been further from the second half at Hendon, midweek. Cookie brought on De Souza for Lodge (switching Oakes to the back 4 and Young to the midfield) and later, Castle for Hyatt and Standen for Challinor. It didn't work. Nothing worked.
Purfleet are a workmanlike side who dominated this game, largely because they were allowed to. They were good value for the 3 points, and , looking back, it was the Saints back 4 who prevented a larger score line. The attendance was 271, over half of whom were the Travelling City Faithful. MotM? If pressed, Moran or Evans.
Entertainment 3/10. Atmosphere 2/10. Technical Merit 2/10. Referee 5/10.
Report by Awayday |
