On the 4G pitch we got going straight away and created and missed a number of chances before taking the lead on 20 minutes. It should have been 2 by then as a tremendous shot from a distance from Maurice did go in but caught the linesman off guard and not in a position to see it bounce down behind the line but you couldn’t blame him given the unexpected nature of the shot. We remained on the front foot denying any real possession to Copthorne and continued to create and miss good opportunities to increase our lead until we did on about 35 minutes.

The mood at halftime was upbeat and I was certainly happy with what we did in and out of possession apart from the chance conversion but I wanted to ensure that the players knew that we had missed too many opportunities and that if Copthorne reduced the deficit we could have an unnecessary nervous end to the game.

The second half was much the same and we did have a nervy moment when Andrew raced from his line to avert the danger whilst still at 2-0 but this was the wake-up call and despite a number of changes to the personnel as we looked towards managing the last 20 minutes we continued to keep the ball well, defend efficiently and create well-worked openings. We scored our third from the penalty spot and ended up deserved winners as we completed 3 successive away games in a week taking 7 points.

Our performances in that time have been good and our points return has got us back into the playoff picture. If we can sustain this over the last 12 games we could secure that playoff place.

Glynn Stephens
First Team Manager