Thurrock-January 2013 results

Hello friends, its another brand new year with us currently leading the table after chalking up four wins last month. But we are only ahead of York with a superior goal difference, we have reached the second half of the season with boiling point and any poor performance will surely have a effect on our promotion prospects. Without further a do, let us take a look on how my Thurrock team performs in January.

We had 3 wins out of 5 games in January not consider perfect, partly due to some injury problems suffer to both my central defenders Troy Archibad-Henville and David King. They picked up the injury during training  and was  out for 1-3 months respectively.

First game of the month was against Histon who was a 4th place team last season. They simply can’t reproduce the form this season and was lying in mid-table. But they were still a dangerous team and we will be playing away from home. We conceded a goal in the first half when we gave their player too much space and time to direct the ball into the net  in our 6 yards box. We were giving away possession easily and was lucky to find ourselves  a goal behind in the first 45 minutes. I was disappointed with the players and expect them to perform better in the second half. They really redeemed themselves as they looked totally different team from the first half. The equalizer came in the 62nd minute when Izale Mcleod ran down the right flank and cut back to Kiernan Hughes-Mason who delivered a unstoppable shot to the top corner. The goal brought more confidence to the team and we scored 2 goals in 2 minutes with few minutes left of the normal time. The fans was absolutely ecstatic as we came from a goal behind to win this game.

Next up was a home game against Fleetwood who is having a bad run of form. They were 6 games without a win before coming to our Ship Lane stadium. We were without our two regular central defenders who were out injured as i mentioned earlier in the post. Two young prospects Swiss Frederic Veseli and Spanish Ignasi Miquel were the ones who replaced them. We were in control of the game and not long after the starting whistle, we took a lead from Marc Richards who was suspicious of offside when he received the ball. But the referee give us the benefit of the doubt and it was 1-0. Not long after the break, they equalized when Ignasi Miquel conceded a penalty by pulling the shirt of their striker. But their joy did not last long as 7 minutes later, they were down to 10 men when their goalscorer was sent off for a professional foul as he was the last man. With 1 man advantage, we try to push forward and Ignasi Miquel made up for his mistake by heading in a corner to give us the lead. Frederic Veseli also got himself in the scoresheet when he scored his first goal for the club in the 62nd minute and we ran out 3-1 winners.

Crawley was our next opponent in this fixture, i am feeling pretty confident as we had never lost to them in this level. Both side were playing attacking football in the first half and it was us who took the lead when a swift counter attack saw Izale Mcleod chasing a long through ball and slide the ball to the net in the 12th minute. Our joy were short-lived when their striker got in front of Ignasi Miquel to put the ball into the net to make things level. Ignasi Miquel made another mistake when he misjudge the flight of the ball and they scored to make it 2-1 in the first half. We tried to come back into the game by applying a lot of pressure. Their players hold the fort well and deny us the opportunity to level the scores. Ultimately we lost the game 1-2.

They were fighting against relegation all season but Hampton & Richmond certainly came here with an attacking mentality. It was an exciting match for the fans as there were plenty of action in both sides of the field. The difference between us today is that my players took their chances when awarded the opportunity and they squandered quite a number of chances. We won the game 3-0 but i thought that the scoreline flattered us as Hampton & Richmond certainly deserved better in this game.

Last game of the month was against Gateshead whom we beat them in Ship Lane earlier. This time round they were determined to avenge the defeat in their own turf. I thought we were the better side in this game but their goalkeeper was having a great game today, made numerous save to deny us a goal. We found ourselves a goal behind when they headed in a goal from a cross. I thought that my goalkeeper had some responsibility as he dashed out to collect the ball yet found himself beaten. I switched to attacking in the second half hoping to get the equalizer but the equalizer never came and we lost the game 0-1.

3 wins and 2 losses was not enough to keep us at the top, Accrington had suffered only 1 defeat in this month and they are now leading the table with 66 points, 1 point ahead of us. York had fallen down the peck, they were 5 points behind and Cheltenham 2 points further. There are 15 games left for the rest of the season, a lot of points to play for. If we were to achieve direct promotion, we certainly need to do better than this.

February has always been having a relax schedule and we will only be playing 4 games next month. No strong opposition waiting for us, i hope we can take 10 or even 12 points for these games.

Dear friends, this is my latest updates on my Thurrock January results. Thanks for reading and i will see you soon in my next post Thurrock February 2013 results.