Having not had a great run of results in recent weeks we were determined to put that right against Polytechnic.  After a vigorous warm up we kicked off on what can be at best described as an uneven park pitch. And despite the warm up and previously mentioned determination, our first half performance is one best forgotten. Basically we struggled to get our football together and were quite often split open by a well organised Polytechnic side. The main problem being their 3 men across the middle of midfield swamping Danny Lawler and Mark Locke in the middle. Myself and Danny Hewitt were also struggling to keep control of Peter Crouch’s twin brother playing up front. The same man scored mid way through the first half, and in all honesty we were probably lucky to go in at half time only 1-0 down.

We started the second half with a revised 3-5-2 line up to try and put up more of a fight across the middle of the park. After being taken apart three times in the first 10 minutes we realised this probably wasn’t a good idea and reverted back to 4-4-2. Luckily we managed not to concede in that time.

It was from that moment that we finally started to get a grip on the game. Danny and Mark were suddenly first to every ball in the midfield, Ryan started to find his passing range from the left side of midfield and Crouchy up front was being marked out of the game. Our domination led to numerous chances that we just couldn’t seem to finish. We fired corners and free kicks into their six yard box, that were being knocked onto the crossbar, just wide and a couple that literally bounced along their goal line. It was starting to seem like luck wasn’t going to be on our side.

Then with about 25 mins left we won a free kick just outside their area. Up stepped free kick specialist Dave Robins to curl a beauty over the wall and into the top corner. How many times has Dave done that in his long, long, long career??

We now saw this an opportunity to get all three points rather than just settle for one, so kept pushing forward creating more and more chances. This meant we were caught on the break a few times, but some last ditch tackles, Nick Denny in particular and a couple of good saves from Nigel, saved us.

Then with about ten minutes to go Andy Bitmead was put through on goal. This was not the first time this had happened, but on the previous occasion he decided to pass it back to their keeper. This time however his shot was a lot better, but the keeper just got a touch (I think, I was struggling to see past Crouchy) to push it onto the crossbar. The ball bounced down just in front of the goal almost at the feet of Michael Pickett. The team were almost turning away, assuming Pickett would smash it home for 2-1, only to see him swing and miss it completely. Luckily he regained his composure and had another go just before a defender got to him, and this time put it in. This was a good way of making up for the one on one that he screamed over the bar a bit earlier.

We managed to hang on for the last few minutes and get the win. 

Despite the fact our football only clicked in places throughout the match this was a good win that came from sheer hard work and battling in the second half. If we do that every game, we will not lose many.