Dave John wrote:A rare home game for me and let's get it in first of all, very happy with the result.

I thought it was a scrappy game overall lit up by two cracking goals. Two very important interventions by Franks late on and for me Podge was man of the match. I thought if anything the ref gave us more than our fair share of the close decisions.

Crowd disappointing - the Bisley is quite quiet isn't it but fair play to the lads in the Hazel, they create a good atmosphere.

The pitch was in good condition as said elsewhere.

... on to Wrexham ..... Up The County!!!!!!!!!!

lowandhard wrote:

Percy plunkett wrote:

bishbashbosh wrote:The Flynn bounce back ability effect takes hold once again. Sheehan played well tonight, crofts makes a difference, gave bakinson plenty of freedom to move forward and support front two. Is that our first choice midfield until labs is back?

Can't see Dolan being left out for Sheehan but great to see Josh do well and get 90 minutes.

Sshhh! Not that I give a f*ck but I was criticised for moaning that despite on paper that we have a good midfield, it never seems to turn out that way ( I do understand that Dolan is injured, as is Bennett who could play there, Labadie was reputed to be ready by now but doesn’t even make the bench , is he training even? How far away is he? ). Admittedly Croft improved things and first half we looked really good for a spell, but second half........
That game could have had almost any permutation of high scores, 3-3, 4-4, 4-3, 3-4 etc. Some good blocks, tackles and woeful finishing made that look decent but imho the highlights will be a lie. They had 3 excellent chances in the last 5-10 minutes when we surrendered the pitch right up until the edge of our box and even at times left nobody up at all. Surprise,surprise, the ball just kept coming back at us. Why, just why, do we do that?

rncfc wrote:I noticed that MD stopped with his long throws a few weeks back. I thought maybe it was a tactic to stop conceding early goals, but perhaps it's something reserved for when we're chasing the game now.

George Street-Bridge wrote:How did Sam Foley do?

Frank Nouble 3 wrote:A real chance to give the opposition a real thumping.
Thoroughly enjoyed the first half but as always we came out and sat back the whole of the second half and were lucky to get all 3 points in the end.
Thought Northampton were at best average.
Thought the ref was in general excellent no cards.
Big improvement in midfield with Crofts MOM for me.
Think he will bring Sheehan & Bakinson on more albeit we still have no pace in midfield.
Thought Joes kicking was atrocious with ice on the ball before Jamille got to it.
How splendid a player is Padraig Amond.
Should of been 5 or 6 last night but we hung in there.
4th place with an atrocious couldn't make it up goal difference.
if Sully does MOM put me down for Crofts.

Frank Nouble 3 wrote:A real chance to give the opposition a real thumping.
Thoroughly enjoyed the first half but as always we came out and sat back the whole of the second half and were lucky to get all 3 points in the end.
Thought Northampton were at best average.
Thought the ref was in general excellent no cards.
Big improvement in midfield with Crofts MOM for me.
Think he will bring Sheehan & Bakinson on more albeit we still have no pace in midfield.
Thought Joes kicking was atrocious with ice on the ball before Jamille got to it.
How splendid a player is Padraig Amond.
Should of been 5 or 6 last night but we hung in there.
4th place with an atrocious couldn't make it up goal difference.
if Sully does MOM put me down for Crofts.

lowandhard wrote:

Frank Nouble 3 wrote:A real chance to give the opposition a real thumping.
Thoroughly enjoyed the first half but as always we came out and sat back the whole of the second half and were lucky to get all 3 points in the end.
Thought Northampton were at best average.
Thought the ref was in general excellent no cards.
Big improvement in midfield with Crofts MOM for me.
Think he will bring Sheehan & Bakinson on more albeit we still have no pace in midfield.
Thought Joes kicking was atrocious with ice on the ball before Jamille got to it.
How splendid a player is Padraig Amond.
Should of been 5 or 6 last night but we hung in there.
4th place with an atrocious couldn't make it up goal difference.
if Sully does MOM put me down for Crofts.

Agree with some of that, the visitors made several good chances especially late in the second half. Were it not for a great saving tackle, some good blocks and some totally atrocious finishing, who knows what the score might have been. It could have been almost anything especially during the spell where we left nobody up at all.
After our purple patch in the first half we surrendered almost the whole of the pitch in the second half so the much vaunted improved midfield turned into extra defenders as did in the end the forwards. For the life of me, I really can’t see the point of not tying up a couple of their defenders with one of our forwards. What was bound to happen and in fact, did happen, was that the ball just kept coming back allowing them to make chances when we should have gone on after halftime and buried them alive.

Exile 1976 wrote:Exactly what I thought Alan.
It was comfortable for us, they had a couple of chances late on but after we went 3-1 up I felt we were always going to win that and at no stage was I worried they’d get back into it