[Izulde]

vs Bromley (9th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Stevland Angus
DC Garry Richards
DR Ryan Austin
DM Tyrone Thompson
DM Brett Solkhon
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Francis McCaffrey
ST Gary Mulligan
ST George Bowerman

3 days from our last match and its bitter conclusion. This one is absolutely critical to get points from, as they're tied with us on points.

6 - Knock for Thompson.

20 - Crocombe comes out too soon and it's a long, easy goal. Sigh. 0-1

21 - That looked offsides to me, but what do I fucking know? 0-2

I'm already preparing for next season in my head, and it's clear we need to improve our finishing up front, our wing play, and our defensive midfield. Our backline will probably need a rebuild as well. In short, we're probably going to have a massive overhaul.

Dixon and Wilson on for Thompson and Bowerman, because it doesn't matter for this match anymore.

65 - Mulligan - McCaffrey - Mulligan give and go on right side of the box for the goal. 1-2

91 - Golden opportunity slips by when a barrage of shots does nothing, but then Richards captures the ball on the other hand that engineers an attack. Wilson's shot is blocked, but he picks up his rebound and slides it to Solkhon, who this time is on target for the late equalizer. 2-2

Well, 2 points over the last two matches is better than 0, but even 3 from Staines and 0 from this one would have been better. Still, the fightback is what counts. 8.1 for Brett Solkhon as MoM, and 7.3 for Gary Mulligan.

@Wealdstone (14th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Eddie Nisevic
DC Stevland Angus
DC Sergio Sanchez
DR Gareth Lee
DM Lee Dixon
DM Aaron Wickham
ML Aaron Brown
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

Another short rest game. They're coming hard and fast now. Though we're 9th in the table, we're only 3 out from the playoff promotion spot with a game in hand.

30 - Angus with the short center to Brown and I think it's in, but it bounces out, and Lee can't use his youth to beat out the defender for the rebound goal.

[b33[/b] - For all the brilliant displays he puts on, Bowerman also has maddeningly easy misses like here.

37 - On the other hand, here's Bowerman short passing to the right for Millar, who does his short pass forward to a zooming Yeoman who *finally* ends his parched goal drought! 1-0

The scoreline doesn't reflect just how much we've been dominating this game, because we've totally controlled it. Wickham is wiped, but we've no replacements for him, so I decide to gamble and make the DMC a ST and put in Mulligan. Yeah, I feel like playing with fire.

66 - The side effect of the new shift is that Wealdstone gets more aggressive, taking advantage of Dixon all by himself in the midfield. Sadly for them, it also means that Mulligan puts forward an awesome ball for Yeoman, and though the shot misses, they're still running back to try and defend, whereas Bowerman is already there to put the rebound in. Nice to see the gamble pay off. 2-0

76 - Monstrous header on a corner. Nothing to guard against that. 2-1

79 - I'm getting a bad feeling here. 2-2

84 - We're robbed of a penalty. Nice home cooking, assmongers.

Honestly, even though we had no defensive subs, we probably would made the right decision. We were playing two U18 guys on the road and were exhausted all around, so maybe a draw was okay.

We're now 7th, all games even, and 2 points back of promotion playoffs. I shut my mouth about the penalty for once.

32 year old Dale Binns comes in on a til end season loan from Maidenhead, just because we're that desperate for ML coverage. He's out anywhere from 3 days to a week and a half himself, but we'll make do until then.

vs Farnborough (9th)
GK Max Crocombe
DL Tom Sharpe
DC Garry Richards
DC Ryan Austin
DR Izak Reid
DM Aaron Wickham
DM Tyrone Thompson
ML Nathan Arnold
MR Kirk Millar
ST Ashley Yeoman
ST George Bowerman

10 - Richards gets caught napping on a pass from Crocombe and nearly costs us a goal.

44 - Yellow for Thompson.

Our strikers have been awful and we've looked meh in general in what should be a very easy contest.

57 - Enough of Yeoman's incompetence. On comes Mulligan for him, and Brown for a winded Arnold.

83 - Chance after chance after chance we've come so close, and *finally* Millar does a little shake and bake inside the half-circle before the short pass to Mulligan for the goal. 1-0.

86 - Yellow for [b]Wickham[b/]

94 - We keep on the pressure and Brown gets a corner for Austin to rear up and send home!!! No last minute ties here, folks! 2-0

That was a breakthrough win we really needed after all these frustrating ties.

The entire backline is 7+, highlighted by Ryan Austin's 8.2 MoM. 7.4 for Gary Mulligan off the bench, too.

Ryan Austin hits the Team of the Week.

We're now 6th, a point away from promotion playoffs with 29 games in the ledger.