W&H 0, Margate 2

[Chris1]

We did enough to win, but the overall performance was not as good as last Saturday’s. However it was worth the trip just to see the two wonder goals.

 

JP was screaming for the knock back from Abbo, and when it came he hit an unstoppable piledriver from the edge of the box. Proths’ goal was even better; a 25 yard volley from a looped ball out of defence.

 

Funny I seem to remember one of last season’s best goals was also at W&H: a free kick by that Polish lad Daniel something. Whatever happened to him?

 

First half we had most of the play and 2-0 was about right despite a number of scares, mostly from unforced errors. Second half they brought on another forward (Thorne) and played an unusual 3-4-3, which did give us a few problems at the back. Even so we created more chances. The eventual scoreline was about right in my opinion.

 

Defensively we gave them too many chances, especially in the first half. On one occasion either of two players could have tapped it in, but luckily for us they put it wide. On other occasions we were lucky to have the class of SCS between the posts. In general I think the central pairing of Donovan and Wild looked good today. Donovan in particular is much quicker than last year. If that is due to the training then hats off to Trotty and Flans.

 

We struggled a bit on the left. Skinner and Jackson work so well together it was always going to be less fluent with Standen in there. Not that he played badly.

 

Midfield McKimm was quiet. Protheroe hit some fine long balls, but too many passes found the opposition. The wonder goal was something else though. I thought Abbott had a good match; he certainly doesn’t mind running at defenders. You might say he holds onto the ball too long and gets robbed. Jackson wasn’t as influential as usual.

 

A petty booking for Proths for taking a free kick before the ref was ready. But the idiot never held up the yellow card, so does it count as a booking? I think the club should appeal.

 

Up front Pinnock had a very good game, tireless and unselfish. He seems to improve with every match. Good goal too. The Hockmeister was unusually quiet today, although you have to say the opposition were determined to mark him out of the game, which opened the way for our other players. It looked to me like his ankle just twisted under him as he turned. Hope it’s nothing worse.

 

Poor Laurence’s shoulders slumped when Robinson was sent on to replace Hockton, but there's no doubt Robinson did a great job. Given a little longer he would surely have scored. Can’t praise him enough on the two sub performances I have seen from him. Would love to see him get a start, but who to leave out?

 

Man of the match, well that’s a hard one again. I thought JD had a great game today, particularly when you compare his sharpness with last season. No doubt others will go for Pinnock or possibly SCS (especially for his enjoyable little dribble up the right wing).

 

Anyway the right result on a nice warm evening, top of the league, can’t really ask more than that!

[geoff pay]

As always Chris excellent in depth. Where do you live you must be an exile like me!!!

[WokingBasedNige]

My first match of the season. I agree with Chris, although I think the defense was more comfortable than he thinks, most of the W&H chances originated from long kicks from their keeper which Wild & Donovan dealt with well.

Not having a go at Standen, but he did make a few mistakes, but he did put in a couple of quality tackles near the end of the match.

Overall a fairly easy 2-0.

[Margate Martian]

agree with chris1. was well worth the trip to see 2 great goals. 2nd half was a bit dull but never the less 3 more points come on!!!!

[Gringo]

And another bad linesman <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

[michael]

Agree with most of the above, though i think its a bit early to go too ott re: Robinson.Promising yes, but sometimes the simple ball keeping possession is the better bet,.Running at defences looks good from outside, but you need an end product to go with it.That will come though, i'm sure

 

Our football was pretty good and fluent.

Almost too good at times ,and we lost the ball because of it.

I thought we shaded first half, a bit under pressure for first 25 mins of second half where the defence did well,and then took control as we had more possession in last 25 mins.

 

Whilst i was about 2 miles away from the incident-horrid ground-it did look as though they missed a tap in from about six inches at start of second half after another SCS wonder save from the first attempt.

They also went close a couple of times at start of first half,and one of these games we are going to concede an early goal.We always tend to look a bit nervous in defence in first 10 minutes.

 

Hockton and then a Wild header also went close for Gate halfway through second half when their keeper made two good saves.

 

As Chris says, in the main CW and JD looked good again, and agree that JD is a yard quicker.

Wild is amazing-is actually very quick.

The whole back four did well imo, and Greg had his best game i've seen since conference days.

Great that he seems back to his regular quality, and playing a bit deeper so we are not so exposed defensively.

In front of him, Abboott again worked tremendously hard and never put a foot wrong.

 

Its never easy to win away on a Tuesday night, so i thought a very good job done last night,and we played pretty well .

 

Nice to see Yiga named as an official replacement.

 

Fantastic we did not concede again.

 

Worried about DH injury-thought it looked a bit bad .

 

Mick Flanagan was very vocal which was good to hear.Does not mince his words !!Seems him and RT do work well together.

[dannyriding]

over the moon with the result. Roll on next game

[P.W.]

[color:"blue"] Our second clean sheet - the second start for Wild - surely not just coincidence? Wild looks imposing, moves well for his size and plays the ball well too.

 

Why was such a player trawling for a job in pre-season?

 

Along with SCS and local lad Aaron Robinson he's my bargain find of season.

[michael]

Need to keep him though-would be good to get him ona two year contract.

 

Is he definately on a 'proper contract' as opposed to one of this weekly wotsits.

 

The best defence normally wins the league so vital to keep clean sheets.

 

Braintree let in 32 last season.

 

When we won southern league in 2002/3 we only let in 27 goals all season and had 23 clean sheets.

 

Clean sheets are vital.you start every game with a point and anything else is a bonus

[P.W.]

[color:"blue"] I forgot to add that I'm abit worried about the injury to Danny, it was not anything that happened during play,he just seemed to turn awkwardly and went down. Let's hope it's just a twisted ankle rather than a hamstring or knee injury . We need his strike power and don't have a prolific understudy for him.