February 2014

An away trip to Ebbsfleet was first up in February, a game in which we recorded a somewhat overdue win. It was goalless for 89 minutes, with neither side really dominating the game. Substitute Richard Offiong, on at half-time, received the ball from Ryan Charles on the edge of the penalty box and hit a powerful shot into the top corner to seal a late victory, and the three points.

The next game, at home to Southport, was without doubt the most frustrating game I'd been part of in my career. The stats showed we dominated, but the game finished 1-0 to them thanks to a very flukey goal; they got a free kick on the right hand side and Luke Chapman stepped up to take it left footed. He hit the ball, it went over everyone and ended up nestled in the far corner of the goal. At the time, I thought we'd be fine and get back into the game, but it wasn't to be it seems. Our next game against Macclesfield was arguably equally as frustrating as the previous one. They got an early goal after just 8 minutes, and we couldn't equalise nevermind take all 3 points, and for the second game in a row, we lost 1-0. It wasn't as if we were playing poorly; far from it in fact; we'd dominated both games in terms of shots and possession, and had several clear cut chances in each, but we just failed to find the back of the net.

The next game against Worcester called for a reshuffle of our striking partnership. Ryan Charles and Richard Offiong were replaced by Lewis Alessandra and Denis Behan, and the rest of the team was kept the same; after all, we we'd created lots of chances, it was just the finishing we couldn't do. However despite the change in attack, it was one of our defenders who opened the scoring for us. Tom Parkes received the ball from a Jake Simpson throw-in on the left hand side, took two touches to bring the ball inside and hit a right footed shot from 30-yards that whistled past several defenders and ultimately past the stranded Worcester 'keeper James Dormand, for his first goal for the club. Just 3 minutes later Lewis Alessandra doubled our lead with a low shot from Lewis Montrose's through ball. Then on 71 minutes, Jake Simpson, who incidentally was brilliant all match, crossed for Denis Behan who headed in at the far post. The change in strike partnership certainly worked as both strikers found their names on the scoresheet. We held on despite a late consolation from Worcester, to win 3-1.

The win meant we climbed up to 10th in the table, still only 4 points from Macclesfield in 5th place; it was still very tight, with only 10 points separating 5th and 17th place.