At times today we looked good, very good. However we also at times looked poor, very poor. For me, Lockyer was man of the match. He looked very confident out wide on the right wing! We know he can play CD and CM but did anyone know he could do the job of a RW??? When I seen him out there I was thinking Ward is doing a McGhee - playing a CD out on the wing. But it turned out rather well. He saw a lot of the ball and got forward and made some good crosses. Clarksons 1st goal looked quality, cant wait to see that goal again. Thought he played much better today. As the games start to come thick and fast, his match fitness will get sharper so I hope we get to see what he can do. Was great to see Brunt leading the line. He looked shattered after about 70 minutes. He can only improve once his match fitness comes back like Clarkson. I was very impressed with Santos. Dont know if im on my own here but his style reminds me a bit like Tony Pounder???? Couldnt see what happened for their red card. I guess Parkes? got hit as he was on the ground after the incident. Can someone fill me in on what happened? Great to get the 3 points and I hope this give the players the confidence boost and its a start of a good run which co-insides with players returning. I heard Harrold should be back next weekend as well. How we started today reminded me of how we started at Fleetwood and at home vs Burton last season where we dominated early on as we did in those games. 1st 15 mins York couldnt handle us. But the longer it stayed 1-0 I believed York would get back into the game. We needed that 2nd goal and thankfully we got it. But before scoring the 2nd we were poor at times. But we scored a 2nd and at 2-0 I thought game, set and match. I thought the 2nd would have killed off York and to me it was just the matter of how many would we get. But York scored before half time and it looked like by the reactions of our players that we were the losing team. I was worried at this. But the red card for their player changed it again and I thought surely we would go on with ease to win this. In the 2nd half York looked better with 10 men than they did with 11 men in the 1st half. I dont know what the penalty was for for York. I was fuming as I had no idea where the ref got his decision from at that would cost us the points. At 2-2 I thought that we were going to lose as being 2-0 up and allowing York to get to 2-2 with 10 men would hit our confidence and the youngsters wouldnt know how to change things. But Jesus saved us. O'Toole got the winner and we should have got another 2 after. I am relieved that we are off the mark but we must do a lot better. I am sure though todays performance was an improvement on Exeter, Scunny & Newports performances.
Good assessment of the game, Someone finally agrees with me about Lockyer being MOTM (No-one around me in the terrace did). Really impressed with Brunt's work rate. As for Santos, he did brilliantly for the winning goal, but struggled at times IMO, he looks a very good prospect however. Clarkson took first goal very well, reacting to an awful defensive slice, and second wans't easy either, good adjustment with two defenders and keeper to beat on the line. His defensive work was good too. I didn't see the sending off at the time, but on replay it looked as though Parkes shoved Bowman first, but Bowman struck Parkes in the face afterwards, and you can't raise your hands. Initially I thought the penalty was given for handball, but it was actually for a slight push by Brown. One of those which happens about 100 times in every match really. Overall I thought the raf had a good game though. There were times where we did look very poor, even at 2-0 it didn't seem comfortable as we struggled to keep possession and invited York pressure. But when we passed the ball on the ground we looked very good, lets hope we can build on this next week against Northampton, who are not good away from home.
