Ash Trees 2 Vale 1

[Swifty]

Three welcome and deserved points, and an assured performance by the lads, though we made hard work of it at the end.

 

Admittedly not the most entertaining of first halves, though we snuck in one up at the break, when a daft clattering 'stepladder' foul just in side the box resulted in Bitz slamming the penalty home in the 41st. Poor Chris Canderton missed the goal, having gone outside to retrieve an errant ball! We had two other decent penalty shouts in the game against a Vale team who complained a lot (a few contenders for moan of the match), but stuck to the task, showed some nice touches and got clapped off the pitch for their efforts.

 

The second half was better, and we looked on course for a straightforward win when Dan Fleming thumped it home with brute force from ten yards out in the 62nd minute. We gave away a soft goal in the 90th, Jerome Smart tucking home an effort which had hit the post and rolled along the goal line, and then Vale put us under immense pressure in stoppage time, to the point where everyone was in our half and nearly everyone in our penalty area. By the way, I though the keepers were meant to wear different colour shirts to avoid confusion in such instances?

 

Problems announcing Vale's three subs, two of which were wearing shirts with different numbers to those on the teamsheet. Next week's announcing will be fun, with Spelthorne Sports being granted permission to use squad numbers!

 

"Fleminho" did superbly today, having to hold the ball up and carve out chances against a steadfast Vale defence. Man of the match for me, though I was also very impressed by new lad Mitchal.

 

May I wish a Happy Christmas to all our readers.  

 

 

 

 

[smoking-gun]

Well done to the lads for a good hard working 3 points, though we did make it hard for ourselves when we dropped off to sleep for the last 5 mins and allowed Vale back in.

Just a thought, Elliot Jones is an excellent right back, he is also good in mid-field but not as effective , the new lad Mitchal Gough has the makings of a very good mid-field player( he reminds me of Scott Weight) in my mind he is not a right back, how about changing Elliot to his best position ie right back and putting Mitchal in mid-field?

 

 

My I take this opportunity to wish all players and supporters of Ashford a happy Christmas and new year.