September 2012

After an unbeaten August, September started with a defeat away to Accrington Stanley. Denis Behan's goal was not enough for us, as we lost 2-1 and slipped to 6th in the league. Our winning ways were restored a week later though, in a 3-1 victory at home to Histon. The visitors broke the deadlock after 5 minutes but Jake Simpson levelled things up shortly after with a header at the back post off a Carl Tremarco cross. Tremarco was making his first start of the season, in place of Matthew Duffy, and impressed throughout the game, narrowly missing out on the Man of the Match. Two goals from Denis Behan in the second half, his 5th and 6th of the season, ensured that we went home with 3 points in the bag.

A midweek game at Barnet followed, in wet and windy conditions. A neat finish from Richard Offiong and a close range effort, yet again, from Denis Behan, gave us the victory, either side of a solitary Barnet goal. Promotion contenders Ebbsfleet were our next opponents, and it looked as though we had the game under wraps after goals from Behan and Offiong gave us a 2-0 lead after 48 minutes. However, Ebbsfleet's Brazilian striker, Magno Vieira, grabbed a 4 minute brace to level things up, and leave us with just one point, in a game which we felt we should've won.

A very frustrating game against Woking followed. They were 18th in the league, and should've been a team we were able to beat, but after they opened the scoring from a free-kick in the first half, we seemed to be always on the back foot. Despite an equaliser from Denis Behan, his 6th in 5 games and 9th of the season, we just couldn't find the back of the net again and squandered several good chances. We finished the game with four strikers on the field; Lewis Alessandra and Ryan Charles, returning from injury, were brought on, but it still wasn't enough to get the win.

A trip up north to Gateshead was the penultimate game of September; and yet again it was a game that we should've won. After going 2-1 up thanks to goals from Ryan Charles and Michael Noone, we took our foot off the gas, so to speak, and let Gateshead come at us, and subsequently take the game to us. They scored two second half goals to give them the 3-2 victory, and the full set of points, much to my displeasure.

We hadn't won in three games, and to make matters worse; we were up against top-of-the-table Shewsbury, who up until playing us, had won 8 games out of 11, and lost just the once. Things didn't start off well for us; Shrewsbury's James Spray scored on 17 minutes, and then just after the break, got another one to double his team's tally. On 69 minutes, Richard Offiong and Lewis Alessandra were brought on for Denis Behan and Carl Tremarco, and I changed the formation to 3-4-3, in a bid to get two goals back. Literally two minutes after coming on, Alessandra combined with Lewis Montrose and Ryan Charles, who fed in Richard Offiong for his 4th goal of the season. This gave us some sort of hope. With 5 minutes of normal time to go, I told the team to go full throttle and go for an equaliser. It worked; in the 4th and final minute of stoppage time, Ryan Charles picked up the ball in the centre circle and once again played it through to Offiong who, in an almost identical finish, scored his 5th of the season, and the leveller for us. We came away with a point, although it did feel like a win, against a very good Shrewsbury team.

The draw meant we finished a fixture-congested September in 7th place, but next month's games are, on paper, easier than what we've just played. But then again, as everyone says, football is not played on paper, and as I know from experience, anything can happen.