Continental Star Bench Talk
Tuesday 25 February 2003

Welcome to everyone for tonight’s fixture here at Tally Ho! Our fortunes in the league since the turn of the year have been disastrous and there is a need for a rapid improvement.

Our 3-2 defeats against Nuneaton Griff and Alvechurch were the consequence of some very slack defending and each match was certainly a game of two halves.

Ten days ago we went in 2-0 up at half-time v Nuneaton Griff with goals from Dave Harnett and Dave Blake despite a lack lustre performance. Unfortunately we then threw it all away with a very poor display in the second period that saw us concede three goals and it could have been several more.

Last Saturday saw us start the match very poorly and concede two early goals at Alvechurch. We started to improve a bit after that and got back into the game on the half hour when Mark Bellingham was felled inside the box by a dangerous tackle from their goalkeeper. Mark tucked away the penalty and I will not comment further but suffice to say the goalkeeper remained on the pitch despite clearly being the last man by a good distance. We then shot ourselves further in the foot with another poorly defended goal.

The second period saw us come out a different team and take the game to Alvechurch throughout. We pulled a goal back after 15 minutes when Niku Sira passed the ball into the corner of the net from 12 yards out. A very cool finish. Unfortunately, we just did not have quite enough about us to grab an equaliser even though our play probably deserved it. A very pleasing aspect from the game was to see the first 90 minutes of the season from Ian Millward who added much needed bite to the midfield.

Tonight sees the return of Andy Reece and Mike Mason from injury with Dave Harnett also available. Lyndon Price is out from the back injury he picked up on Saturday and I have one or two selection headaches for tonight. What’s new!

Enjoy the game and hope you can make it down here on Saturday for the game against Coleshill Town.