Express & Echo (City & East Devon Edition)
I thought my season might be over but my ankle has settled down a bit
UNFORTUNATELY, I went over on my ankle in training last Friday, forcing me to sit out Saturday’s epic 4-2 win over Port Vale.
At that stage, I thought my season might be over – I watched the game at Vale Park with my foot in a protective boot – but things seemed to have settled down a bit now and, while I’ll know more after I’ve had a scan, I’m hoping I’ll be fit to play some part in our season finale at home to Oxford on Saturday week.
As you might imagine, it was frustrating to have to watch Saturday’s game from the sidelines; all the more so when the home side led 2-0 at the interval.
As it was, I thought our first-half performance fell a long way short of the standards we’ve set ourselves over recent weeks and it was no surprise Gary Caldwell was keen to make that point at half-time.
That said, given the circumstances, he remained surprisingly calm; I think, perhaps, he sensed we had it in us to retrieve the situation and, that being the case, was at pains to remain relatively upbeat. In any case, it seemed to work: Millenic Alli’s deflected 57th-minute strike gave us renewed hope and when Zak Jules fired us level from a corner 10 minutes later I sensed a famous victory might be on the cards.
Sure enough, with 10 or 12 minutes to play, a sublime touch from Pedro Borges gave Luke Harris the opportunity to slam a volley into the top corner and put us 3-2 ahead; Milly added a fourth goal, after great work by Ilmari Niskanen, in the 89th minute, and Harry Kite went close to making it five only to see his 25-yard strike balloon back off the crossbar in injury time.
If you haven’t caught up with Luke’s goal, I’d encourage you to seek it out on the club’s social media channels as it really was a thing of beauty.
Without a doubt, it’s a worthy contender for the club’s goal of the season accolade – for me, it’s right up there with the one Demetri Mitchell scored in our 2-1 defeat at home to Leyton Orient at the beginning of September.
As I’m sure you’ll have heard by now, Kitey has turned down the offer of a new contract and opted to leave the club at the end of the season. With that in mind, it was a real shame that the crossbar denied him the opportunity to mark his return to the first team with a goal on what was his 100th appearance for the club.
Another product of the club’s academy, Harry’s a great guy who will be much missed. Unfortunately, with circumstances rather conspiring against him this season, he hasn’t played as many games as he would have liked and, that being the case, I can understand why he’s decided his future lies elsewhere – wherever he rocks up, I’m sure, like Jack Sparkes this season, he will prove a huge asset for his new club.
Pedro also appeared off the bench and our No 41 made quite an impact in the 20 or so minutes he was on the pitch. For sure, on the evidence of Saturday’s performance, he seems to returned from his loan spell at
Dorchester revitalized and eager to kick on. I imagine he will have a big part to play in pre-season and if that goes well would expect to see a lot more of him in the 2024-25 campaign.
Our win over Port Vale came four days after we’d extended our unbeaten run to seven games by coming back from 2-0 down heading into injury time to snatch a 2-2 draw at Leyton Orient.
Truth be told, we should never have found ourselves two goals behind in the first place. We were the better side throughout the first half and really ought to have been ahead at the interval. However, the home side scored directly from a corner in the 3th minute and doubled their advantage when we gifted them a soft goal 20 minutes into the second half.
Having already used all their substitutes, Orient were forced down to 10 men when Brandon Cooper went off with an injury in the 7th minute. It took us a few minutes to realise what was going on, but once we became aware of our numerical advantage we weren’t in the mood to show the home side any mercy.
Milly halved the deficit with his first goal since joining us in the 88th minute and just seconds later Will Aimson stuck out a boot to divert a Tom Carroll effort into the net. When the fourth official indicated there would be six additional minutes, I thought there was a distinct possibility we could go on to nick all three points but, alas, it wasn’t to be. Nevertheless,
having trailed 2-0 going into the 89th minute we couldn’t be too disappointed to only come away with a share of the spoils.
Sixteen-year-old Jake Richards started against both Orient and Port Vale and, while an injury forced him off at half-time in the game at Brisbane Road, he belied his tender years in both games.
I don’t pretend to know exactly what the manager has in mind for Jake next season, but there’s no doubt he’s a real talent and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we were to see an awful lot more of him.
As I mentioned in last week’s column, with my daughter having been poorly over the preceding weekend, I was forced to make my own way up to London on the morning before the game.
And while I could have done without having to drive myself home again afterwards, the journey was a whole lot more pleasurable than it would have been had we lost.
This weekend see us travel to Northampton, who have been a bit of a bogey side for us over recent years.
Notwithstanding I’m still scarred by the memory of the Cobblers’ 4-0 victory over us in the 2020 play-off final, I have the utmost respect for their manager Jon Brady. Be that as it may, such is our form and momentum at the minute, I see no reason why we can’t stretch our unbeaten run to nine games
If any extra incentive were needed, a win would see us climb above our hosts to 11th in the League One table and all but ensure us of a top-half finish.
That aside, our away support this season has been phenomenal and it would be great if we could round off the campaign by rewarding all those who travel the length and breadth of the country to support us with a 10th away victory of the campaign.