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Brilliant. We looked like scoring on every attack. Jonah was immense and looked premiership class at times. It wasn't just his attacking play but he tracked back and did more than his fair share of defending. Got off to a flying start when Jonah attacked in the first minute. The ball was cleared out for a corner but from the corner he fired into the bottom corner of the net. 1-0 up after 60 seconds. Half the pitch was under snow so the pitch was bounce to be slippy and the tempreture must have been no more than 1C bitterly cold. We ended up going 2-0 up , well nearly, as the Notts County score board only managed the 'goal' graphics 6 minutes after the goal. We did go 2-0 up on the 12th minute though. Excellent movement from the players with Lunt, Brammer and Jones being involved for Hulse to move into the box and knock past the County keeper. Excellent one touch football and we seemed high on confidence. I had visions of 4-0 and 5-0, oh how depressing.
After that we took our foot off the pedal. McCready was under pressure from a few long balls but he did superbly and was easily man of the match for me.As for Notts well. They looked poor. They were clueless when it came to breaking down our defence. The only shots they had were ones high and wide. We however continued to make chances and Hulse was just kept out by the County keeper with a decent save when he headed from the edge of the area and a stretching keeper dived to his left to palm away. Hulse then volled in but was offside. Just before half time Jonah had a moment of magic. Running from deep inside the Crewe half he ran the whole pitch down the left beating 2 players and with one player to beat he nutmegged him but the defender was embarassed and so just gave Jones a dead leg. Shame because it would have been 2nd div goal of the month easily.
So the first half we were well in front and losing wasn't even on my mind it was more of hoping Cardiff slip up so we can go 5 points clear.
2nd half -
2nd half:
We nearly got off to another great start and we should have sealed it then. Jack raced clear of the defence keeper to beat but his let down once again was his power and not accuracy, hitting his shot straight at the keepers legs. From then on Notts so wanted it more, whatever Dearden said to them it worked as they thought alot. As for us we just went rubbish. Our midfield was awful. Brammer and Sorvel slipping a sliding everywhere in the middle. Brammers passing was awful and probably misplaced more than he completed but he did hold the midfield together and battled but really needs to sort out his passing. Sorvel was pretty good breaking down many attacks and his passing wasn't bad at all. Lunt tried and was decent with some decent balls. Defence was solid. Ince was excellent and dominant.
On to the penalty. It was a disgrace and harsh on Walker. The guy went down like he had been glassed when it could have been nothing more than a brush with his trailing arm. The ball was beyond Walker and Stallard and Walker simply turned to go and collect the ball after a over hit cross. After that we were panicking with 20 minutes to go. It was should we attack? Should we defend? Noone knew and Dearden capatilised on this by throwing on more attackers for us to contend with. We didn't really have any other shots or chances in the second half.
The second goal came as a killer blow. Gutted. It came as a result of Sodje slipping and letting Stallard get the better of him and just before he raced clear on goal Sorvel managed to get back and clear for a corner. From that corner Sodje headed over as Ince missed the ball when coming for it but from that corner Jones failed to clear, Notts played the ball accross to Stallard who was marked by sodje. the ball was bouncing at knee height so why was Sodje trying to head it clear?? It gave Stallard a chance to get free and Ince had no chance when he raced in from the left.
Man of the Man - Chris McCready by a mile!
Good thing - Hulse and Jonah work their magic AGAIN and despite their efforts we messed up.
Low point - Two 2-0 leads squandered in the space of 4 days. DISGRACE! We aren't finishing teams off like we use to. Bottling it!