town v walton casuals 09 /01/13

[yellowperil]

tonights game v walton casuals is on ko 7.45pm .

[grimrich]

I'm sure that a full account of the match will appear on the official website but it's worth mentioning a couple of points.

The result (0-2) could have been quite different. John Lansdale had an excellent free kick saved with difficulty in the first half, Ben Austin hit the post with a header, and late on three Town players queuing up to put the ball in the net had their effort blocked.

Having said that, I thought that Walton Casuals were a much better side than Whitstable were last Saturday, despite Walton being bottom of the league. I don't remember Whitstable threatening Town's goal much at all, whereas Walton had several low crosses in the first half begging to be put away but without success. Ironic then that both Walton's goals were the result of defensive lapses.

An entertaining game in spite of the result.

[oap]

If Town are a team whose mid-season wobble is behind them I would hate to see a team who are struggling. Although they were denied from opening the scoring by two very good saves by the Walton keeper on the stroke of halftime I think most spectators would agree that had we scored it would have been against the run of play. We were unlucky not to score with the header that hit the post but the Casuals keeper did not have to make a save in the second half. For a side sitting at the bottom of the table Casuals had much more idea when attacking and were solid enough in defence whereas we seemed unable to string three passes together and even our throw-ins became 50/50 balls.Town have done well to pick up the 9 points since Christmas and what a good job it is that they have these in the bank or they would be in a relegation dogfight on the form they showed in this game.

[grimrich]

I think oap is being too negative. Town's defence has looked strong recently, particularly since Steve Elliott and Ben Austin have been paired. Unfortunate that two defensive slips last night proved costly. Town seemed to rely too much on long balls into attack. They missed Matt Crabb yesterday, not least for the free kicks and corners he puts on Ben Austin's head. Unfortunately, Matt's replacement at no. 11, Mark Pulling, seemed as concerned to give the referee the benefit of his advice on where the ref was going wrong as he was on playing his game. As a result he picked up an unnecessary yellow card and drew Ben Austin into disagreement with the referee. Town did not need that distraction. That's my take on it anyway.