When the players come out a few minutes before 3pm I stop selling programmes and 50/50 draw tickets, tidy up and take the ticket stubs and card machine to the club shop at the front of the ground. Then I come back into the ground through the NRE turnstiles. Usually I miss the kick off. Yesterday the teams were just kicking off as I entered. I didn’t think anything of this until about 5 minutes in and I looked at the scoreboard to find we were a goal down!
Watching the highlights from the kick off a long ball down the middle was played wide for a low cross into our 6-yard box where Okadina skied his clearance into the air and it dropped for Ahadme to head past Mitov. 1-0 down after 14 seconds. Did I hear jingle bells as we gifted them the lead? It seemed to weigh heavy as we really didn’t seem to have much idea what to do against a team that were closing down quickly and tackling very firmly.
10 minutes in and something happened I didn’t see, resulting in Burton’s Smith getting a straight red card. A goal down to the bottom team who were reduced to 10 men. Thoughts of Cardiff all those years ago!
Some half chances came and went, then a long cross from Williams found Smith at the back post and his header looped over the keeper and in for the equaliser.
This should have been the “turn round” moment where we go on to win the game comfortably, but a period of Burton pressure and a corner was headed in by the unmarked Bayford to give the visitors the lead which they held to half time.
More chances in the second half, then a shot by May that might have been going wide was turned home by Smith for our second equaliser.
Surely Burton must be getting tired by now! Okadina played the ball back to Mitov who took a touch, then kicked the ball against the advancing Adahme and it bounced into our net. Jingle bells again for another early Christmas present gift.
Subs were made, and O’Neil made a great chip into their penalty area for Smith to run on to and volley home from around 12 yards for his hat trick and our third equaliser. Best goal of the game.
The winner came from one of the few times Ironside got the better of his defender by holding up a quick Lankester pass before laying it off to O’Neil to shoot home. This knocked the stuffing out of Burton, and we comfortably held on to take all 3 points.
Burton have some big men, and our first half tactic of long ball to Ironside just didn’t work. Way too often players were free for an easy pass which was not taken and slow passing around going backwards seemed to be the order of the day! This continued for a while into the second half. We seemed to lack creativity until Lankester and O’Neil came on. Rossi came on for the last few minutes, and had a couple of decent headers to clear danger.
Adahme was a real handful, usually marked by Okadina who struggled against the greater height. I wouldn’t mind Adahme in our team! Burton’s Onyango came on, he was even taller and more of a height mis-match with Williams, probably the reason for Rossi to get a few minutes.
Smith was by far our Man of the Match, I hope it wasn’t his final appearance for us. Tracey looked dangerous with his speed to get into good positions, but the final ball was not great. Until the subs came on our midfield seemed content to play backwards too often. Oh to have a Wessi to put the ball into dangerous spaces!
The old saying that “if you play badly but pick up points” applies, and the 3 points puts us in 7th place. Just stop giving away simple goals!
Burton didn’t look like a bottom team, and I suspect they will soon get their first win.
Terry Wilby