Again the home team were missing a number of players with Andy Dickson, Adam Grace, Nathan Midghall, Adam Joseph, Jordan Scott & David Murgatroyd all missing through injury, which just shows how important it is to have a large squad to help us get through the season.

We lined up with a familiar 4-5-1 with Dude as the lone striker, Matty, Pez and Mark in the middle and Ged & Ryan in the wide positions. Back four of Steve Wynne, Alex, JD and Martin.

Our recent injury curse struck again within the first five minutes, Mick Ward in goal picking up a thigh injury which forced him to leave the pitch - JD went in between the sticks and Midge slotted in at centre back. One fifty year old off to be replaced by another.

Throughout the first half we looked really sloppy with pass after pass going astray, we just could not get into any rhythm, mostly through our own errors and defensively we looked sloppy as well with nobody willing to mark their man or challenge for first and second balls.

We went behind before Mick went off with a long ball over the top, none of our defenders attacked the ball and this left Mark struggling to get his head on it. The touch he managed to get on it placed the ball in between our defenders and into the path of their forward who struck in to the roof of the net past a stranded Wardy.

The rest of the first half became a blur of poor passing, slack marking and a total lack of movement for the man on the ball - enough said about that then.

At half time I could have changed all ten outfield players if it were in the rules but decided to change two and go to a 4-4-2. Maybe Matty & Ryan were unlucky to come off as everyone else was also poor but I had to change something and unfortunately for them they paid the price for the rest of their team mates!

On came Scotty and Jason with Jason playing down the left and Scotty in the 10, we also laid out a few home truths at half time about our performance and what was expected during the second half.

The changes and the half time chat had more or less immediate affect with Dude crossing from the left and the ball reaching the far side of the box, Ste Wynne shooting the ball back and Ged diverting it past their cat. 1-1 and all to play for.

The second came a few minutes later with some much improved passing finding Ged Moore inside the box again; Ged fired his shot low into the net to give us a well deserved lead based on the second half performance so far.

Young Ben came on for Dude who had ran himself into the ground and we then had another forced change with Midge coming off with a thigh strain - this meant Ste moving to centre back alongside Alex and Ged going in at right back, Matty coming back on then at right midfield.

The second half performance was much better from everyone. There was better movement and passing all around the pitch and we were linking play well through Pez and Scotty. My only real criticism for the whole of the second half would be that we are still too quite by far!

Talking to your mates on the pitch is so important as they can not see the whole picture, by telling them to move right, left, forward or back it would help the teams shape so much - 'man on' or 'turn' again ensures they know what their options are early and so we either prevent losing the ball or help them advance further free of thinking they are being chased.

MOM for this week is split between Jonny Dunn, who again played in goal for us when required and while he was on the park kept a clean sheet as well as giving us some good distribution (apart from the one he hooked out of play while aiming for Martin), and Ged who was a constant threat and his 2 important goals put us on track for the win.

A good day then followed up by a good race night in the club on Saturday night, thanks to all of the lads that came along and brought people with them! You and they helped make it our most successful event to date.

Enjoy your week and try to get some fitness training in please so we can continue to push on with our recent good run of league form.

LINE-UP:
Mick Ward
Ste Wynne
Alex Murphy
Jonny Dunn (joint MOM)
Martin Mathews (1)
Ged Moore (2) (joint MOM)
Perry Hughes (c)
Mark Pollard
Matty Hints
Ryan Taylor
Tony MeGarrey

SUBS:
Jason Sweeney
Robert Midghall
Ben Gibbons
Chris Scott