U's:2 Alty:1
Ahh, the return of the 2-1 win. It’s been a while since United triumphed by their favourite scoreline, although in truth it could have been a more comfortable victory had the players not spurned so many chances.
To be fair, the U’s came up against a visiting keeper in inspired form. Stuart Coburn gave us a taste of what was to come early on, when he blocked a Lee McEvilly shot after the striker had latched onto a nice through ball from Dan Gleeson.
United spent most of the half on the front foot, dominating matters in the centre of the park where Convery looked more mobile than usual, putting in a number of good tackles. It was no surprise when we took a 23rd minute lead through big Evil. Wolly played a superb pass down the right for Rendell, who cut into the box and crossed for the Accrington loanee to sidefoot home from about six yards.
Alty, backed by a small but vocal group of fans in the South Habbin, mounted vaguely dangerous counter attacks on a couple of occasions, but in the main we continued to looked the more likely scorers. Gleeson, who like the rest of the team seems to have recovered some semblance form in the last couple of games, had a shot deflected behind, while Albrighton got a half-volley in from a Reed free kick which looked a certain goal until Coburn leapt across to parry the ball over the bar.
To Alty’s credit, the teams were more evenly matched in the second half, with the action switching from end to end at a frenetic pace. Potter parried a Colin Little volley, and denied Chris Senior, while for United Evil failed to connect with a Convery cross and Rendell almost got on the end of a Gleeson centre, but saw Greg Young nip in to head the ball behind. Convery also missed a glorious chance when he met another Gleeson pass but saw his close range shot saved by Coburn.
With United passing up so many opportunities, you always feared the visitors would conjure up an equaliser, and Robbie Lawton fired a warning shot across our bows when his powerful drive from the edge of the area beat Potter but hit the underside of the bar and bounced to safety. Six minutes later Reed, who had another poor game, gifted possession to Joe O’Neil, who slid an inch perfect pass through to Little. Potter raced off his line but didn’t get to the ball, and the veteran striker nicked it past him and rolled a shot into the empty net.
But Alty’s joy was short lived, as United regained the lead five minutes later. Convery picked up the ball about 25 yards out, and got a shot in that looked to be trundling wide until it took two deflections and snuck into the corner despite the scrambling attempts of Coburn to keep it out.
There’s no doubt the winning goal was a lucky in terms of its execution, but it was probably a deserved break for the U’s, and it’s good to see that the players kept going after conceding a late equaliser. While they were facing limited opposition, hopefully this is a sign that the ‘never know when they’re beaten’ mentality that was so prominent earlier in the season is returning.
Man of the Match: Wayne Hatswell – I wasn’t overly impressed with the own-goal maestro on his debut at Grays, but he’s beginning to look the part now, with some assured tackling and excellent distribution.
View of the Match: The sunset over the Habbin. Nice innit.
To be fair, the U’s came up against a visiting keeper in inspired form. Stuart Coburn gave us a taste of what was to come early on, when he blocked a Lee McEvilly shot after the striker had latched onto a nice through ball from Dan Gleeson.
United spent most of the half on the front foot, dominating matters in the centre of the park where Convery looked more mobile than usual, putting in a number of good tackles. It was no surprise when we took a 23rd minute lead through big Evil. Wolly played a superb pass down the right for Rendell, who cut into the box and crossed for the Accrington loanee to sidefoot home from about six yards.
Alty, backed by a small but vocal group of fans in the South Habbin, mounted vaguely dangerous counter attacks on a couple of occasions, but in the main we continued to looked the more likely scorers. Gleeson, who like the rest of the team seems to have recovered some semblance form in the last couple of games, had a shot deflected behind, while Albrighton got a half-volley in from a Reed free kick which looked a certain goal until Coburn leapt across to parry the ball over the bar.
To Alty’s credit, the teams were more evenly matched in the second half, with the action switching from end to end at a frenetic pace. Potter parried a Colin Little volley, and denied Chris Senior, while for United Evil failed to connect with a Convery cross and Rendell almost got on the end of a Gleeson centre, but saw Greg Young nip in to head the ball behind. Convery also missed a glorious chance when he met another Gleeson pass but saw his close range shot saved by Coburn.
With United passing up so many opportunities, you always feared the visitors would conjure up an equaliser, and Robbie Lawton fired a warning shot across our bows when his powerful drive from the edge of the area beat Potter but hit the underside of the bar and bounced to safety. Six minutes later Reed, who had another poor game, gifted possession to Joe O’Neil, who slid an inch perfect pass through to Little. Potter raced off his line but didn’t get to the ball, and the veteran striker nicked it past him and rolled a shot into the empty net.
But Alty’s joy was short lived, as United regained the lead five minutes later. Convery picked up the ball about 25 yards out, and got a shot in that looked to be trundling wide until it took two deflections and snuck into the corner despite the scrambling attempts of Coburn to keep it out.
There’s no doubt the winning goal was a lucky in terms of its execution, but it was probably a deserved break for the U’s, and it’s good to see that the players kept going after conceding a late equaliser. While they were facing limited opposition, hopefully this is a sign that the ‘never know when they’re beaten’ mentality that was so prominent earlier in the season is returning.
Man of the Match: Wayne Hatswell – I wasn’t overly impressed with the own-goal maestro on his debut at Grays, but he’s beginning to look the part now, with some assured tackling and excellent distribution.View of the Match: The sunset over the Habbin. Nice innit.
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