Chances go begging at Nuneaton
I’M still at a loss as to how we didn’t win on Saturday. The obvious thing, of course, is that we didn’t score a second goal.
We had chances, enough to win any game, but even after all the endeavour and attacking play we left the Coombe Abbey Arena with a single point and a whole lot of disbelief.
Nuneaton holds some great memories for the travelling County support; remember Glenn Rule’s wonder strike? However, on Saturday there was a touch of depression about the place.
I like non-segregated games, they give you a chance to talk to like minded people but the ability to mix somehow removes any atmosphere from the ground, at times it felt like a ghost town with the lack of noise.
The locals I talked to had deep worries about their club’s future. It appears that the egg chasers who own the ground are turning the financial screw, but they were philosophical about the whole thing, they were friendly and I wish them all the luck in the world.
The game itself was largely forgettable, which after our last few games was a bit of a surprise. Neither side could claim they were on top until the 37th minute when Josh Amis, yes, Josh Amis, turned his man and shot from the edge of the box and would you believe it, he’d doubled his goal tally for the season.
Sadly the euphoria didn’t last long as just five minutes later “Boro” equalised when a simple header across the face of our goal was met by the unmarked number 11 who scored the simplest of goals because he was totally unmarked!
In the second half, as I said, we could have won the game several times over. Max Cartwright, from three feet, decided to be subtle instead of just putting his foot through the ball allowing a defender to get a toe to the ball and turn the ball wide.
Big K had a glorious chance, dead centre on the six yard line, completely un-marked, he headed the ball into the ground and watched it bounce over the keeper and over the bar.
Finally Michael Clarke managed to get his foot to the ball, again just a few feet from the goal line and when it looked easier to score than miss, he missed.
Yet again we saw a strong performance but we need a recognised striker before we can call ourselves promotion contenders.