[JonInMiddleGA]

Nov 8, 2012
Blyth (3-5-8, 22nd) at Newport Co (5-3-8, 16th)

First of four straight on the road, as we visit The Exiles. Not a spectacular club by any means but they've managed to keep themselves midtable. They're missing a couple of starters due to injury today, maybe we could steal a point. They play a 4-1-2-2-1, not sure how we'll handle that, it's the kind of thing that tends to give us trouble. We'll open in 4-4-2 Counter, see how that goes.

GK: Knight
D: Giddings, Jones, Purvis, Sinclair
MF: Phillips, Hands, Whiteley, Groves
F: Mole, Hassan
Bench: (Martin, Matondo, Stamp, Slaughter, McDonald)

2:00 - Jones gets beaten in the air on a long pass ... Thompson is one on one with Knight ... lobs ... scores (0-1)
06:20 - Hassan plays one through to Mole ... he's in on the keeper ... Yakabu tackles it away from behind cleanly

Halftime - We outshot them 3-2, have 55% of possession but have never looked like a serious threat. The early goal has put us in a tough spot. We'll go 4-4-2 Standard & see what happens next.

47:00 - Phillips picks up a yellow card for tripping
50:00 - Giddings clears a dangerous ball off the line
56:15 - Hassan breaks the trap, gets stoned by the keeper on a one -on one
61:00 - Sub Matondo for Phillips
65:15 - Knight denies Morgan in the box
66:00 - Hassan shoots high from left edge of the area
66:45 - Sinclair gets a yellow for a shove
71:00 - Sub Stamp for Hassan ... switch to Attacking
74:00 - Hands get a yellow card for a rough challenge that forces Hendrie from the game
78:50 - Groves muscles his way down the right sideline ... crosses to Stamp about 8 yards out ... GOAL ! (1-1) an ugly one-hopper that bounced past the keeper after it hit Yakubu on the leg
87:00 - Switch to Counter
88:00 - Groves gets a yellow for protesting a foul that wasn't called on some rough play in the box

Fulltime - Well we got a point on the road, and that's a good thing. Outshot them 8-5, maintained 55% of poss, really feels like we could have had more than just a draw here frankly. And that's in spite of netting only an own goal thanks to Yakubu.

Knight 6.9
Giddings 6.9, Jones 6.9, Purvis 6.9, Sinclair 6.0
Phillips 6.9, Hands 6.8, Whiteley 6.9, Groves 6.9
Mole 6.8, Hassan 6.6
Subs: Stamp 6.5, Matondo 6.9

Nov 7, 2012 (postmatch)
The single point keeps us 22nd, two behind Welling at #20. It moves us three ahead of Ebbsfleet & four up on Braintree, but we need to gain ground on the other relegation candidates and may have missed a good chance here today.