Page 6 - Yate Town FC v Gosport Borough FA Cup 180921

THOUGHTS FROM THE DUGOUT

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to The South West Interiors Stadium for our FA Cup
2nd Qualifying round match with Gosport Borough. May I extend a warm welcome to Shaun
Gale, the staff, the Gosport players, officials and supporters, I hope you have a safe journey
to and from Lodge Road this afternoon.
In all competitions we are 3 wins, 2 draws & 3 defeats from our 8 games with one of those
defeats coming at Gosport just a week ago. Of course form is largely irrelevant in the FA Cup
as both teams will be desperate to reach the 3rd qualifying round and go one step closer to
the holy grail that is the first round proper.

The game a week ago was an entertaining one in which I really enjoyed aspects of our
performance but in the end was bitterly disappointed to lose. The game ebbed and flowed
and after Olly’s great opening goal both teams had periods in the ascendency, indeed at 1-1
only a short period before Borough’s winner we had an almost identical ball across the box,
ours went into the air, came off Harding’s face and somehow stayed out whilst at the other
end Gosport’s low cross was crisp and turned into our net. We
had other opportunities too including a mazy dribble from Simsy
in which we were only waiting for the net to ripple to make it
goal of the season so far. But it wasn’t to be, so today we have
another go Gosport who are a well organised talented team
who have started the season in such great form.
Hands up on Tuesday we weren’t quite at it. When you drop
of by just a few percent in this league you get punished and
Truro did that to us on Tuesday. For all we felt that we were
nowhere near our best we were beaten by an exquisite free
kick and then we made an uncharacteristic error for their
second. After Ric’s early strike hit the post we huffed and
puffed but didn’t create anything so that was
disappointing, but these days happen in football,
and we’ll probably have worse days to come so
it’s not time to dwell, we look at what we need
to do better and aim to get back to the
standards we have set for much of the first
part of the season, or indeed, what a great
day this to go one further and play even
better which this squad is definitely capable
of.

So get behind the team today when we walk
out onto the field, it will be great to hear you
cheer us on, when we go close and get
forward help us maintain and build
momentum, encourage the boys when they
do something well and together let’s see if we
can get into Monday’s draw!

Up the bluebells!

Cheers,
Paul