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T H O U G H T S F R O M
THOUGHTS FROM THE DUGOUT
THE DUGOUT

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to Lodge Road for our first home Southern League Premier South match with
Dorchester. May I extend a warm welcome to Leigh Robinson, the Dorchester staff, players, officials and supporters,
I hope you have a safe journey to and from Dorchester this afternoon and enjoy the hospitality of our club.
May I also welcome all our Yate supporters back to the club for this first league match and thank you for your support
on Tuesday evening. There was a good crowd and good support for the boys on Tuesday evening but sadly we didn’t
respond with the performance that support deserved. At the time of writing that performance is still very raw. I
would like all the supporters to know that although I am new to the club, we are all Yate now, this is our club and
that performance hurts me as much as anyone at the club. We were not good enough all over the pitch, our passing
was so poor, we kept giving the ball back to Manor Farm and in any game, if you do that, you will struggle to win the
game. We didn’t compete with the intensity that we should have and we will be doing everything we can over the
next couple of days to address those issues in our performance. Of course goals change games and we had our
chances; we didn’t take them at key times whilst Manor Farm did, and once you give a team a lead to fight for in this
famous old competition it becomes a very difficult game. Prior to Tuesday I had never suffered defeat in an FA Cup
competition to a club even on the same level, let alone the level below and it’s not a feeling I want again. That said,
we all know Manor Farm have a couple of excellent, sought after players, that clubs
at our level would love to have and credit to them, they were clinical, took their
chances, I wish them all the best in the rest of the competition.
Football is a strange game and the psychological aspect of the game is not lost
on me. We were behind Saturday at Met Police and Tuesday against Manor
Farm yet gave two very different responses. At Met Police were we were
away from home against a strong team, we were calm, kept our cool,
deservedly got the equaliser, took control of the game in the final 20 and
perhaps should have won it. In contrast I feel as a group we struggled with
the pressure of going behind to a team in the league below knowing that we
wanted so desperately to win in our first home game as a group in front of
great home support. Under that pressure I feel many tried too hard and we
lost all shape and rhythm. We must learn to keep calm and be able to
fight for every ball in every game regardless of the scenario in the
game, winning or losing, against top or bottom.
Away from the pitch I have to say I’ve been hugely
impressed with everything going on at the club. The work
to keep everyone safe at home games and follow the
COVID guidelines has been a huge effort that everyone
can see. The work behind the scenes on the commercial
side seems to have started really well and this type of
work with local business and the engaging the
community will ultimately make us more sustainable
and competitive at this level looking towards the future.
Back to football & we were without Angel, Norman and
Kamara on Tuesday for various reasons and we are
hopeful of having all three back for Saturday. On the flip
side of that it is likely Des Peare will miss the game with
a calf injury and Dave Sims Burgess is away on holiday
and having suffered a shoulder injury in the Manor Farm
game is likely to be out for a few weeks. We know that
Leigh Robinson having had longer to work with his
squad after being appointed last season will make
Dorchester a different proposition to last season and we
know they will also be hurt from their own FA Cup
experience midweek meaning a huge test lies ahead for us.
To all the supporters, we are new group coming together,
assembled late in the summer, we will get this right but it was
never going to be overnight, there will be more highs than lows
but more of both along the way please keep backing the team as
you have so far and let’s see what we can achieve together! Let’s
go to work!
Paul