Tonbridge Angels manager Jay Saunders’ verdict on their goalless draw with Bath City in National League South
Published: 05:00, 25 August 2024
Tonbridge preserved their unbeaten record - but didn’t hit the heights manager Jay Saunders was looking for.
Angels shared a goalless draw with Bath at Longmead in National League South on Saturday.
It was a fourth match without defeat for Saunders’ side although that run includes three successive draws.
“I was disappointed with us today, to be honest with you,” said the Angels boss.
“There’s always positives in a game - a clean sheet is a big positive, our first of the season.
“I just thought we never got going in the first half.
“We’ve got a lot of energy in our side and we looked a little bit off it and I thought in possession we were a little bit sloppy, which isn’t normally us at home.
“So I’m disappointed on that side of it but the clean sheet is a positive.
“Probably last season we lose that sort of game but we look a little bit more solid which is good.
“There’s still loads to improve on. We’re four games in. We’ll take the point, take the clean sheet and then we’ll just have to keep improving. That’s all we can do.”
Tonbridge worked the ball into some decent areas but weren’t effective enough in the final third.
They were largely untroubled at the other end, with the back three of Jamie Fielding, Nazir Bakrin and Ronny Nelson giving little away.
Saunders said: “Maybe if I watch the game back it might look different but there’s things we work on, there’s things we expect and I just thought we dropped below them at times in the first half.
“We did get in good positions.
“Mo Dabre in the first half is in a great position, he has to shoot and we’ve probably got to score from that sort of area but even when we did work it in those areas I thought the final ball lacked.
“Over the last few games we’ve been good, when we’ve had those chances we’ve taken them.
“But I just think we were not at our best today and had we have been I think there was probably a chance to get three points.
“First half, we gave them a few half-chances.
“Second half, I don’t think they really troubled Toby (Steward, goalkeeper) at all apart from a couple of little mistakes of our own but in general I thought we were solid and we got in some half-decent positions.
“We could have been better, and we have played better, but at the moment I think we’re having spells in games.
“But, like I’ve said, you’re probably not going to see teams at their best until six, seven, eight games into it because everyone’s still learning.
“We’re still learning about the players and the players are still learning about what we expect.”
Tonbridge visit Farnborough on Bank Holiday Monday (3pm), with the hosts having seen their 100% start ended by Welling.
Boro were thumped 4-1 by the Wings but Saunders is reading nothing into that result.
“Farnborough is a really hard place to go,” he said.
“They’re a massive side, they’ve got the long throws, you know what you’re going to get from Spencer Day’s sides and we’ve got to go there and deal with that.
“We’ve got to make sure we do the ugly side of it.
“If you can do that and stand up to them, then you’ve got a chance.
“It’s this quick turnaround again, playing Saturday-Monday two weeks running.
“It’s not ideal but we’ve got to get the lads prepared as best we can and go there and give it a good go.”
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Craig Tucker