18/10/2024
By Chris Gibbs
Spoils shared at Hanley
Let’s not kid ourselves – this isn’t a game that will live long in the memory. I’m almost trying to forget about it already!
But as Neil has often said to me in post-match comments after games: if you can’t win the game make sure you don’t get beat. And that is one thing that we’re getting pretty good at.
Last night’s goalless draw at Hanley extends our unbeaten run to six games – four of them draws admittedly – and temporarily lifts us to 11th spot in the league before this afternoon’s games.
To say it was a game of two halves would be a bit of a stretch as though we looked the more likely in the opening 45 minutes, we didn’t really create much in the way of worthwhile chances. Hanley on the other hand when they had the better of the play in the second half had one off the line and also saw a flicked header come back off the crossbar.
Fielding the same starting XI for the third game running, we started the brighter. Jake Avery forced Hanley keeper Joel Stair into an early save inside the opening ten minutes. Five minutes later came arguably our best chance of the game when Ty Webster made a good run down the left, crossed in for Jake but the pass was just a little too far in front of him and the ball ran harmlessly away.
That was pretty much as good as it got. After the break, the home side could easily have taken the lead on the hour mark when Slinny’s clearance was charged down and Finley Ryder lobbed the ball goalwards. Thankfully, your favourite farmer and mine, Tom Thorley got back to provide the cover and we survived.
Four minutes after that escape came our only real moment of note in the second 45. Jack Sherratt, who was probably our most effective player on a night when he didn’t have a great deal of competition, played a lovely cross-field ball to the always industrious Ty Webster. Ty shimmied this way and that before putting his finish just over the bar.
Jack Derbyshire struck a raking drive just passed the far post five minutes from the end, after both Avery and Ethan Morgan – who replaced Tom Jones for the last 20 minutes – had efforts blocked, but it was hardly as if the Hanley goal had led a charmed life.
As the game neared its end, it seemed less and less likely that a breakthrough would come, and so it proved. The final whistle probably came happily to both sides. Hanley will need a lot more than draws to drag themselves away from the relegation zone but we also need to start turning draws into wins to compete further up the league than we have done in recent seasons.
Our next chance to get three points on the board comes at home to Witton Albion on Tuesday.
Team: Slinn, Derbyshire, Ritchie, Sherratt, Thorley, Van der Laan, Dos Santos, Vale, (Robinson 90+3), Avery, Jones, (Morgan 72), Webster, (Twyford 69).
Man of the match: Jack Sherratt – as I’ve said in my report, there weren’t an embarrassment of riches on show for this award last night but as he so often does, Jack used possession intelligently. We didn’t have a cutting edge tonight but that was a collective thing.