Town 2 Horsham 2

[blue pilgrim]

With key defenders Swaine and Oates missing, Town were further hampered when they lost Sam Berry early on. Horsham played with the approach of a side with nothing to lose and their pacy front men caused problems for Town's makeshift rearguard all afternoon.

 

There were times when it was difficult to tell who was top and who was bottom, but fair play to Town in coming back twice. Horsham scored after 30 minutes and then Coutrney White scrambled an equaliser on half time. They went behind again on 58 minutes after a Horsham counter attack. Jay May equalised on 65 minutes, heading in a lofted free kick.

 

The draw was a fair result in front of a 500 plus crowd. Still all to play for .

[richards]

I didn't think our standard of football was very good but to be fair we scrapped for a point and kept the unbeaten run going. Finding out that Hornchurch had lost again cheered me up and concluded that this was eventually a point gained.

 

Some bizarre decisons from the ref, in our favour for a change. How Dale stayed on when committing a foul as last man and outside his box is beyond me, and we could also have conceded a penalty near the end.

 

Lowestoft back in the hunt again, we have got two huge games coming up against our title contenders, the way things are going the last day of the season may be quite a game.

[Eastside Urchin]

ha ha finding out you drew with Horsham cheered me up

[Rick the Dick]

ha ha finding out you drew with Horsham cheered me up

 

Not as much as finding out you lost AGAIN cheered me up!

[Eastside Urchin]

Indeed,getting it out the way before the title run in,shame you couldn't take too much of an advantage.

[Rick the Dick]

Dissapointing result but losing Sam Berry from a back four already missing Sweyne & Oates was a big blow. Hope the reported ligament damage is a false alarm & we see Sam back in a Blue Shirt before the race is over.

 

When you have a bad day like today but still extend your lead, it 'aint all bad.

 

Lowestoft starting to look ominous again; two zip at plods place is a pretty good result.

[MarkBTFC]

Unfortunately we was not good enough on the day. you cant perform at 100% every week. showed good fighting spirit after going down by a goal twice and could have won or lost the game at the end. disappointed with the defending, missed swaine and oatesy and with berry going off and no emika on the bench left us with little creativity or an option to change the game. Hopefully next week we should have a couple of players back. I see junior is on loan at maldon now, could do with him as an option in the next few weeks.

[Gareth J]

Extremely disappointed with today's performance. We seemed to be well off the pace across the park, and credit to Horsham, they exploited that extremely well - especially our lack of pace through the middle. There seemed to be a few too many players having a bad day and we really made a meal of the day. It's difficult to be too critical when ultimately the day did work out in our favour, but we do need to keep an eye on Lowestoft who now seem to be over their "bad run".

 

Would have been nice to have seen something other than hoofball because the few times we did play football we actually seemed to make progress.

 

I do wonder whether the number of changes we made to the team haven't helped us. I know we have injuries, and changes would have to have been made, but surely we could simply have moved Sam Berry back to right back and made a change in front of him - either Marriott or Radley. But instead we had to move Halle back into midfield, bring in Sobers (who doesn't look fit to me) and generally rearrange the centre of the team. I don't think this would have helped.

 

Anyway, it seems like we have to up our game a little now and try and get some of our form back again for the run in.

Come on you blues.

Edited March 10, 2012 by Gareth J

[jl]

A disappointing result, although to use a "Harry-ism" we really were down to the bare bones especially once once Berry had limped off.

 

We started quite well in the first five or ten minutes but seemed to panic because we weren't ten nil up by that stage and some of the players seemed to lose discipline in the formation. I agree with Gareth that splitting up the midfield partnership of Collis and Poole, which had done pretty well in the previous few games was a bizarre decision, but thankfully we changed that after 25 minutes or so and from then on Poole was able to get on the ball much more and I thought we pretty much dictated the game after that.

 

Horsham's tactics to hit us the break were quite effective, from their point of view I expect they will be very pleased with their second goal. I was impressed with Nwachukwu for them. He gave Hawes and Halle (once he had been shunted to centre-back after his midfield horrorshow) a torrid time on that side of the pitch and it came as no surprise to me that both were replaced. Unfortunately we didn't have the option to bring on any pace late on as we had farmed Luke out on loan. If Oates and Berry are going to be out for a while, then at least we do have a quite a few options there with Radley (who I thought did quite well in that position), Sobers and Collis.

 

We had quite a few chances to win the game, a couple of headers from Wild that he stuck over (Note to boss: Practice heading from corners on Thursday) and a late difficult chance for Radley that he stuck wide spring to mind. Those down the far end thought there was no contact between Brightley and their forward and the ref who I thought had a poor game guessed at a decision from 40 yards away. It was like the Alamo for the last twenty minutes but I think it would have been harsh on Horsham for them to have come away with nothing.

 

It's another game gone, another point on the board and another game closer to getting Swaine back who has been a huge miss for us. With Edwards likely to be back fairly soon, hopefully we will have a decent sized squad available for the run-in.

 

There will be plenty more twists and turns and strange results before the end of the season, so we need to stick at it. Leatherhead away next - we do owe them one for the FA Cup.

 

Come on you Blues!!

[The Town Crier]

Our wagon rolls on...just nine games to go.

The atmosphere during the last half hour was electric and had Billys volley gone in, New Lodge would have erupted.

Not a great result for us, but not a bad one either. Every game is a "big game" now, so lets enjoy it

COYB !!

 

 

Ref siad Dale didn't go off because there were two defenders coming across who would have got in behind, and the touch from the Horsham lad was heavy and the ball would probably have gone behind for a goal kick, so it wasn't a clear cut goal scoring opportunity.

 

But from where I sat, and my view was good, I didn't think Dale touched him

[Ryan.c]

I thought it was an absorbing game, altho my ticker may not last another 9 of those! Credit to Horsham, they didn't play like a team 'doomed' and their second goal was class. We had the chances to win, but after defeating C*****, Plod, Cray and Hendon recently, I guess the players have earned an off day! Tuesday sees Lowestoft at home to East Thurrock and Hornchurch at Carshalton. Onwards to Leatherhead and no more fecking injuries please!

 

Keep it going lads, 9 games from glory.

[Keith.P]

Enjoyable game as i doubt anyone in the ground could have predicted which way it would have gone ! With defenders missing we looked more vulnerable to the counter and Horsham also looked vulnerable . Defo a point gained after Hornchurch lost in my book , but as already said Lowestoft are finding feet it seems again .

 

Wilde had 2 typical centr half headers which on another day would have broken the net ! and i lost couint of how many corners we had during the final 10 mins . Great entertainment ! what football is all about , mix that in with every time Horsham broke it made for an exciting game .

 

Did have heart in mouth when their fella went over Dale and from where i was i thought here comes a red , but obvioulsy not being close could not tell if he dived .

 

Keep it going lads !! Basically, it is all in our hands now ...Gulp

[Bill of Shenfield]

As already said, good start then downhill when Berry went off till Collis was moved back into midfiled. Enjoyable game with some heart wrenching moments but a point gained. We can still do this as Hornchurch slipped up but there will be more twists and turns before the season is over.

[extaffyjim]

Left with very mixed feelings. It was certainly a game we should have won on paper, but we all love football because its not played on paper, and Horsham looked much better than their points tally would suggest.

 

That said we had the chances to win it and we left ourselves a bit exposed to the counterattack, pushing forward for goals. Of course we werent helped by our depleted back line.

 

It was an entertaining game and the atmosphere in the second half was great. The attendance was a bit up on our average so lets hope the entertainment value brings some of those floaters back.

 

9 big games to go and it looks like its going right to the wire so lets get behind the boys and cheer them on to glory.

 

COYB

[Rick the Dick]

Horsham are currently trailing 3-0 at Wealdstone. 20min to go.