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E-mail your comments and questions to John Nutter atjnutter@thekmgroup.co.uk
We played Tranmere at their place back in August and battered them possession wise and chances wise only to lose 4-2 because of a mixture of bad luck and a couple of individual errors.
We’re all determined to make amends at Priestfield on Saturday.
My last notes were written before the Boxing Day game against Brentford, which was a game which saw us dominate for long periods but we couldn’t convert the chances.
Brentford left with three points thanks to a fortunate goal which involved three different deflections before finally squirming across the line. Josh being sent-off certainly didn’t help as we were forced to reshape slightly and it meant I had to be withdrawn.
That was frustrating as I was enjoying the game but we had to get a centre half on and young Tom Wynter did fantastically well on his debut.
Brentford came to frustrate us and set out to try to avoid defeat. They probably left with more than they expected to. We were disappointed with the result but we can take many positives from the performance.
We then travelled to Exeter for an important game as they sat just below us in the table. We had a minimum aim of trying to make sure that we stayed above them in the table. After the 90 minutes, we managed to achieve that with a well-earned draw.
We can be pleased with the day’s work, especially when you consider the players which were unavailable in Westy, Kingy, Josh, Gary Rich, Danny Jack, Fab, Barch and Roycy. We dominated the first half and also fought back after going a goal down and weathered Exeter’s late storm.
Young Toks (Rashid Yussuff) made his full debut and I thought he was terrific. He showed great athleticism, a nice touch on the ball and he’s given the gaffer another selection headache when some of the senior boys are available again.
The game also saw Stewy Lewis grab his first goal in league football and what a good goal it was – not to mention an important one for us.
He has a good strike and I’m sure he can chip in with a few more in the future.
After Exeter we faced the FA Cup tie with Accrington.
It was a game which was always going to be touch-and-go as the weather again took a turn for the worse.
We had to prepare properly though and travelled up as normal on Friday and awaited a pitch inspection on the Saturday morning.
After waking and opening the curtains to look out on what looked like Siberia on a cold day, we discovered that the game was called off and had to begin our journey back home in some awful traffic. We travelled with knowledge that at least we would be in the hat for the next round.
I watched the draw hoping for a home game to begin with, which we got, and the next hope was that a Premiership team would be visiting us and we have been lucky enough to get Fulham.
It’s a great opportunity and hopefully can inspire us to victory against Accrington on Tuesday night. As we saw last year, a full house and lots of noise could inspire an upset, so lets all focus on getting the right result against Accrington.
Before we travel north again, we have more important issues at hand with a massive game against Tranmere. A win would see us climb away from them and the relegation area.
See you on Saturday - weather permitting.