 03/02/2008, 5:20 PM
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The Yellow Scribe
Joined on 30/09/2007
Posts 8
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Letchworth pockets picked of the points by Stevenage Barca
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A cruel last minute goal gave Stevenage Town a 1-0 win over an injury ravaged Yellows at Knebworth Cricket Club.
With two players laid up in bed, and a subs bench that wouldn’t have looked out of place in A&E on a Friday night, this was a very fine performance by those players fit enough to play.
Suffering from what sounded like an awful smokers cough, Males dragged his weary body across the white line and provided everyone with moment after moment of great skill and energy. One run in the second half ended with a beautiful drop of the shoulders and a fierce shot that the Stevenage goalkeeper did well to push out for a corner.
During the warm up Morris also went down injured, and even though he bravely took to the field, he was struggling throughout. Without a regular midfield, Leech-Levy dropped back into unfamiliar territory and ran his socks off, not only harrying and tackling, he gave Campbell-Gump two passes of real quality that split open the Stevenage defence and could have seen the Yellows two up at half time. To his immense credit, Campbell-Gump never dropped his head and continued to play a great line along the opposition defence, and gave them lots to think about through out the match.
Both the wide men played a key part today. Moore and Hancock were a constant threat going forward and a constant presence in defence. Several times, Smith went on a foraging run, and every time he did, there was Moore dropping back to cover for him. And Hancock was great again today. Ignore the mistimed tackle, F, we know you were trying to get the ball.
The first half really belonged to the Yellows. Their superior passing and movement should have been converted into goals, but Stevenage are a well organised football side, and even though they were denied the opportunity to play by the Yellows superior first half performance, they should be credited for sticking at it even when things weren’t going well for them.
Valpy-Nelson also had a fine match and had to work twice as hard as normal as his regular midfield partners headed for the increasingly large sick bench. Even Courlander found time to join them, having tenaciously closed down the opposition defence at every opportunity, he got a nasty kick to the ankle which will see him miss next weeks game.
Oli was great again today. His calmness in defence is something all players should aspire to. He’s always there, in the right place, nicking the ball off an attacker and crucially finding a pass to a team-mate. Luck also made several fine stops today and even took upon himself to leave his area to rob an attacker of the ball. His kicking from the hand was much improved today. Fells found himself playing in several positions, and had to play with a painful injury through the last ten minutes.
But the biggest performances of the day were the two centre backs, Gillham and Bentley. Both of them were immense and their covering, tackling, and passing were first class. The more they play together, the better they get.
And then, right at the last, Stevenage got a lucky break just outside the area, got in behind a tiring defence and scored their goal. And you can’t take anything away from them. They play the game the right way and they took their chance. Had we done the same, the score would definitely have been in our favour.
But the football Gods have given us a chance to put things right when we play them at home next weekend.
And thanks as ever to Stevenage Town Youth for their wonderful hospitality, along with their lovely bacon rolls.
Joint Man of The Match – Bentley and Gillham .
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