February 2013

After the disappointing month we had in January, February started brightly with a win against 9th placed Barnet. The starting line-up included 20-year-old right winger William Mellors-Blair who had joined the club on loan from Walsall a few days earlier, and whose named sounded like it should be preceded with 'Lord' or 'Duke'. After only 50 seconds of the game, Ryan Charles headed in off a Netan Sansara cross for the opener and his 12th goal of the season. Barnet then levelled things up shortly after half time, but Denis Behan won it for us with 11 minutes of normal time to go.

An away fixture against Woking was next. They were 18th in the league, but were on a relatively good run of form. After two impressive substitute performances, Mark Arber started his first game for us at centre back, alongside Adrian Nevins. It looked as though we had the game under control when Netan Sansara scored after half time. However, the home side cancelled our goal out 20 minutes later, and that was the way it finished. At least we didn't lose anyway.

We did lose our next match at home to Gateshead, who were dwindling around in mid-table, and not really doing much in terms of pushing for promotion, so it was a bit of a disappointing result. We had a fair few shots (13) so on paper it looks as though we should've scored at least one, but I guess that's football for you!

We did manage to find the back of the net in the final game of the month against our old enemies Ebbsfleet, three times in fact. It was our fourth game against them this season, after we played them twice in the FA Trophy last month, and we hadn't managed to get the better of them on any occasion. However, this time was different; Richard Offiong ended his goal drought with a 25-yard finish on 11 minutes, and William Mellors-Blair got his first goal for the club just before half-time with a tap in at the back post. Denis Behan converted a penalty in the final few minutes to make the final score 3-0 to us.

We finished February in 8th place, 9 points off Shrewsbury who were occupying 5th place, the last play-off spot. I think the play-offs are still achievable, especially since we'll be graced with Jake Simpson's presence in March, after his return from injury. Hopefully we'll get a few wins together and put pressure on the teams above us, but we'll see.