Page 6 - Yate Town v Poole Town 241020

THOUGHTS FROM

THE DUGOUT

Good Afternoon all and welcome back to the South West Interiors Stadium for the visit of Poole Town.
Welcome back to all our supporters and of course we hope that Tom Killick, Micky Hubbard, the Poole
staff, players, supporters and officials have a safe journey to and from Yate today.
Our opponents today arrive unbeaten and in second place in the table with four wins and a draw from
their opening 5 games, with a game in hand on leaders Tivy. The big, tough games keep coming thick
and fast. We wouldn't have it any other way and whilst it is a huge test for our developing team we have
to see it as an opportunity to be the first team to inflict defeat on Poole.
We've worked incredibly hard throughout the week to prepare the game and I'm really looking forward
to seeing the team perform today. We are going into an exciting week with the Poole game, Hartley
Wintney away and then the Trophy game with Bideford at home next weekend. At the time of writing
we have injury doubts over Nick Rhodes who has been playing with a tight groin, the chances of him
being able to play 3 games in a week at the moment are slim. We have Aaron
Ward-Baptiste out with a shoulder injury sustained at Truro, he's likely to
be out for around another week. Dave Sims-Burgess is still recovering
from his shoulder injury sustained against Manor Farm and is likely to
be another month or more away from action depending on how he
reacts over the next couple of weeks. Des Peare, Ryan Beckinsale and
Ricardo Rees are all still rebuilding match fitness after a hamstring
injury, an ankle injury and a long lay off from Football and will all be
involved over the next week, we just may need to be wary of
workloads.
Last time out against Chesham we were close but not good enough.
We will never be satisfied with defeat and that was one that got
away. In an even game, I felt we had slightly more good
chances than them but still without creating enough.
Reviewing the footage showed their striker to be
offside prior to the penalty decision, we ourselves
benefitted from a penalty decision so can't complain
there. Immediately after going behind Norm did
well to win a tackle and play in Olly for a one v one,
good work from Olly got him in on the byline but
unable to find a team mate on the cut back, he
also bent an effort which drew a good save and
then Tunns had a loose ball in the six yard box he
was only able to prod to the keeper at the end of
a half. In the second half we applied pressure
without creating other than some fight balls in the
box and the penalty so we go again.
Many have questioned decisions by the official,
but we all have off days, players, management
and officials alike, blaming officials won't help us
improve our performance, the only way to do that is
to look at the things you do and we've continued to
do that this week.
If the match comes down to one or two decisions from
the official then you haven't done enough to win the
game. So let's do more today. C'mon the bluebells!
Paul