November 2013

Bottom-of-the-table Altrincham were the first visitors to New Bucks Head in November, and they were easily brushed aside in a convincing 5-0 victory, an identical scoreline to the previous game against Willenhall. Tommy Lee was injured in training between the two games, meaning Alex Cisak started between the sticks for his first appearance of the season. Tom Parkes and Dale Hannah returned to the starting line-up whilst Lewis Alessandra partnered Richard Offiong up front. It was Alessandra who got the first goal for us with a header from a David Fox corner. 5 minutes later, Alessandra's powerful shot was parried to the feet of Jake Simpson who cooly finished for his first goal of the season. Richard Offiong bagged two goals before the break and Dale Hannah's first goal for the club completed the scoring in the second half.

Grays Athletic, another team fighting for survival in the league, were our next opponents. Offiong's 58th minute goal, and 6th in 4 games, gave us the lead, but Grays equalised and managed to hold on for the draw. It was an overall even game, but one in which, in hindsight, we should've won.

The 1st Round proper of the FA Cup came next, as we were drawn at home to League Two's Northampton, 9th in the league at the time. A balanced first half with no goals kept us in with a shout, but the visitors grabbed a goal in the 65th minute to take the lead. It looked as though we we'd spent all our energy, but in the 87th minute, Dale Hannah was brought down in the box and Denis Behan converted the penalty to earn us a replay at their place. The only dampener on the result was the fact that Ryan Charles suffered yet another injury, this time a pulled hamstring, meaning he'd be out for upto a month. We drew 1-1 for the third game in a row in our next game against 5th placed Salisbury, with Richard Offiong grabbing our only goal.

The winner of the FA Cup 1st Round replay would go onto play AFC Bournemouth in the 2nd Round, and from the off, Northampton looked the better of the two sides. They scored after just 3 minutes, but we equalised through David Fox half an hour later. However, within 10 minutes of the restart, Northampton had scored twice, and added a fourth in second half injury time, meaning we were out of the competition.

A trip to Kidderminster Harriers, 4th in the league, was next in the fixture schedule. We hadn't won in 5 games, and needed a win to keep up with the other teams around the play-off places. However, we didn't start well; Kidderminster scored after just 10 minutes. But, with just over 5 minutes left of the first half, we were awarded a free-kick right on the edge of their box. Netan Sansara stepped up and curled the ball left footed round the wall and into the corner of the net for an equaliser. Our chances of winning the game were given a blow when Lewis Montrose received his second yellow card just a minute after we'd pulled level. Things were even between the two sides, until the 72nd minute when Kidderminster once again pulled ahead. We pushed on though, and were awarded an 83rd minute penalty when William Mellors-Blair was brought down, and Denis Behan converted for his 10th league goal of the season. Our ten men had fought back, but it wasn't enough. A 90th minute Kidderminster goal proved to be the winner, and we headed back to Shropshire with nothing to show for our efforts.

Netan Sansara got his 2nd in as many games as we finally got our long-awaited win, against Droylsden a week later. A goalless draw against Woking was the final game of the month, and left us in 5th place. We were only two points away from 3rd and 4th place, both of whom were on 37 points. Leaders Rushden and Diamonds were on 52 points and hadn't lost all season; they were our next opponents.