The fine art of winning ugly is vital
WHAT a great week for County, two wins, six points and six goals scored and we’ve ended the week in a play-off position.
Following on from the draw at Halifax we needed to step up and turn these ugly results around and that’s just what Jim and the lads have done.
I’ll be honest, I never thought we’d turn Brackley over the way we did, we played them two weeks earlier in the FA Trophy where they beat us easily however last Tuesday the rolls were well and truly reversed, County were excellent from start to finish.
It was probably the best performance of the season so far. The midfield were in total control, our pace was thrilling and caused the home side no end of problems.
Courtney Meppen Walters bagged a brace without the home side ever threatening Ben Hinchcliffe’s goal and when Kaine Felix scored our third, the travelling faithful and there were a decent number of us, went crazy.
It was a thoroughly deserved win and the long, long journey home was all the sweeter because of it.
Saturday brought Stalybridge to Edgeley Park. Recently the games against our near neighbours have been “bad tempered” so there’s always a risk of a slip up, for parts of the game they came at us and looked threatening while we seemed to be at odds with each other.
The passing, so crisp at Brackley, looked pedestrian, CM-W and Elliot Osborne made mistake after mistake and as the mistakes continued the Cheadle End started to get tetchy.
But as the saying goes “it’s a sign of a good side that wins while playing badly”.
We won and that’s all that counts, two goals from Danny Lloyd and one from Jimmy Ball and that play-off position is ours and with the games against Alfreton and FC United coming up, there’s no reason why we can’t consolidate and make that position our own before the difficult month of March.
Next week also takes us to Crewe for the Cheshire Senior Cup. I have mixed feelings about it.
Yes I want to win every game, we are holders and beating the Railwaymen is always fun – but at this point of the season the League is everything.