Steady on Mike, I know we are all frustrated today but to say the tactics were inept is out of order, we tried to play football on a surface that wasn’t suitable, we created enough chances to win the game, like you said how many saves did JK have to make? just wasn’t our day today, hit the post twice, hit the bar, missed a pen, connors and Warlow both through on goal missed chances on another day playing the same way we could have won 4 or 5 but hey ho lets put today behind us and move on.
Gutted but the run had to come to an end at some point!
Don’t think we did enuff to win it, fair play to Ashton they adapted to the surface better 1st half, and the second goal was a belter.
Unusually! can’t blame being kicked off the park or the ref - thought the sending off and the penalty were ridiculous decisions and they both went for us!
We lost trying to play football - and i will never have a problem with MY team doing that.
At least it gave some of our moaning supporters the chance they’ve craved for a while - had to watch from the side 2nd half - I still can’t understand why some of them even bother turning up - they must have been so miserable over the last few months!!!
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
Have to say that Aston didn’t seem to have much problem in moving the ball around on the pitch so I hardly think the tactics were wrong, it was just one of those days when the team just did not gel and the chances didn’t go in. At least its out of their system and they can now get on with the job of winning the league. I am sure we would have taken this position at the beginning of the season so lets forget that one and get behiund the boys on Tuesday.
Still think its fair to say that the tactics were inept, because we didn’t change. Everyone knew well before the game that we wouldn’t be able to play football in our usual way at Ashton, purely because of the playing surface, and that was clear for all to see. Our chances came when we got the ball forward quickly for players to run on to. I think today we got it wrong. Most of the season we’ve got it right. I’m sure for most of the rest of the season (over a quarter of it left) we’ll get it right as well.
UniBond Premier Division Saturday March 3rd 2007
ASHTON UNITED 2 WITTON ALBION 1 att 230
TEAM: Kennedy; Hockenhull (Jones 65), Spearritt, Pritchard, Brownhill; Peers (Proffitt 75), Lloyd, Brown (Clegg 70), Connors; Warlow, Moseley.
It was 3 months back that Albion last lost an away match and when seeing the poor playing surface at Hurst Cross quite a number of the large assembly of travelling Wittoners thought there and then this wasn?t a surface that was going to suit Albion?s style of play. In the end those fears were proved as time and again the neat passing, that has been so evident throughout the last few weeks, came adrift as the ball either refused to travel or we attempted a pass too many.
From the kick-off though Albion took the game to their hosts with the first minute seeing Mark Peers scamper down the right before delivering a high cross that evaded everyone. In the 8th minute Steve Connors burst through the last line of defence, sent his shot past Lee Bracey and unfortunately just past the right upright. On the quarter hour mark a Rob Lloyd corner was headed wide by Brian Pritchard. At the other end an Ashton flag kick saw Tom Spearritt relieved when his intercepted header struck his own cross-bar.
This prompted Ashton to embark on several raids, notably down the right with Phil Cooney causing Liam Brownhill problems as the winger seemed able to ignore the dreadful pit marks in the bottom corner of the pitch. However Albion withstood the threat and really Jon Kennedy wasn?t tested. Instead on 31 minutes Adam Warlow won the ball, controlled it with his body and left his marker for dead as he bore down on goal, the normally lethal striker though, with Bracey advancing, pushed the ball too much and wasn?t able to regain control before it ran over the goal-line.
Witton were, five minutes later, left to pay for their misses when, not surprisingly, Cooney again did the damage, this time though his cross being met by the head of Tommy Taylor at the far post. Two minutes later worse was to follow as Taylor, spotting Kennedy off his line, looped a 25 yard shot over the keeper to claim a very good opportunist goal indeed. Just before the break Mike Moseley saw his flicked attempt held by Bracey at the second attempt under the cross-bar.
The 2nd half saw virtually all the attacking moves coming from Witton and Lloyd was desperately unlucky in the 54th minute when his low vicious shot smacked against the left upright. The home team then were reduced to 10 men just after the hour mark when Kevin Keigher decided to take his own retribution after Connors had leaped into a ferocious tackle. Albion though failed to make the extra man count and in a rare Ashton attack substitute Ian Bennett really should have made it three when he was gifted the ball centrally placed but struck his shot wide.
With ten minutes left though and all three substitutes on a direct attack saw Griff Jones square the ball perfectly for Warlow to let fly only for Bracey to pull off a wonder save pushing the ball out to his right. From Lloyd?s resultant corner-kick BRIAN PRITCHARD was credited with bundling the ball over the line although it did appear to many that an Ashton defender had the decisive touch. Two minutes later a Lloyd free-kick saw Jones flicked header attempt go narrowly wide of the far post. Then with 3 minutes remaining Albion were awarded a penalty when an Ashton defender seemed somewhat harshly punished when the ball struck his arm but Preston referee Mr Conway was quite close and had no hesitation in throwing Witton a life-line. Two minutes elapsed as Matthew Kay and Player/Manager Scott Green berated the official and were both cautioned. Up eventually ran the normally reliable Griff Jones but this time his spot-kick cannoned down off the cross-bar and with it went the last chance to salvage at least a point.
Results today saw none of the top three winning so Albion still hold on to 2nd spot but how costly the silly bookings in this match for both Steve Connors and Alex Brown will be in a couple of weeks time to the squad, as both serve multi match suspensions is one headache Jim Vince does not deserve.
Bad day at the office, but, let’s face it, it was bound to happen some time, everything has been going for us for the last few weeks. I thought Ashton battled well today, and I won’t begrudge them the win. I agree with Andy Chad that we were fortunate with both the sending-off and the penalty, and, while the ref might not have been brilliant, we’ve had plenty that have been a lot worse.
I also agree that we tried to play too much fancy football today, on a pitch where it didn’t suit. But let’s remember that it’s because the team has played that way all year that’s making it such a memorable season - I’d rather be entertained every week than bored.
Let’s hope that was a game that the team just had to get out of their system - if so, better it was today than Tuesday! We’ve still got it all to play for, so forget the moaning, get behind the lads, and let’s show Telford what the league’s been talking about with Red Hot Witton, Football Kings!
Football is a "daft" game, look at the Scum result at Liverpool, played off the park and won 1-0 when down to 10 men. But the fact is the league winners ARE the best team, and we ARE the best team. There might well be another "blip" or two, but if we continue to play good football the results will come as they have done in the past. I want a win on Tuesday and I think we will get one, but they might "sneak" a point or even, God forbid a win, it won’t make any difference in the end, we WILL win this League because we ARE the best team in it.
WHS.
before the ashton match we were sayin how great it is that we play such attractive supporters and that its great that we are attracting supporters even from across the canal! so why o why wen we lose a game do people get on the teams back because they tried to play this attractive football! its not on this team is awesome! i am so gutted i have missed a lot of the games this season because of being away at uni! it is just a blip! telford obviously arent on the best form in the world ever and they are vulnerable so i hope that a hell of a lot of people turn up on tuesday and get behind the team! Id definately be down there if i wasnt so far away! lets just forget yesterday! ok i was gutted when i saw the result on sky sports news yesterday, i couldnt get to a computer unfortunately :(, but lets put it behind us and i shall definately be following on the computer on tuesday to hopefully see us win against telford! Come on Witton!
With luck I shall have my two sons with me, one from Crewe and one from Birmingham. One from Brum may bring a mate or two and I may get a mate from work to come too. If we all bring one more we will have getting on for 800 Wittoners there. A dream I know, but here’s hoping.
WHS.
That would be absolutely great if we had almost 800 wittoners there cheerin on the boys! Come on Witton!
Most of what has gone before covers my thoughts, but somehow I thought from the off that we were playing with the Telford game already on our minds.
It isn’t a disaster and we will lose more games before the end of the season, so lets make sure we get behind the lads tomorrow for what will really be a cracker!!
Greetings from the temporary Dubai branch of the supporters club.
Still gutted about Saturday but certainly not worried by the result - this is far from being a crisis. You just got the feeling it was going to be one of those days. The pitch certainly didn’t help, as well as been incredibly heavy there was a huge slope on it and it certainly stopped playing a passing game. We can learn from this, there is a time to play nice football and a time to ‘win ugly’, it is easier said than done to completely change the way you play but I think examples like trying to play short corners and passing it across the box on the 18 yard line can be avoided. You need to play to the conditions, shoot in and round the box, go more route one if need be. Conceding the 2 goals so quickly was another blow.
I certainly will not be crtical of the lads or the management, all clubs have days like this and results like this, "you can’t win 'em all". Telford’s performance does not appear to have been particulary good, 2-1 down until the 70th minute and a point at home to a side staring at relegation (who we battered at their place).
The irony is this result could have come at the right time, just reminds us that you have to do more than just turn up to get the three points - and that there are different ways of planning to suit different pitches and types of teams.
Normal service will resume on Tuesday I am sure, no panic as far as I am concerned.
Emirates airline permitting I will be straight off the plane to the ground (that is if it does not get called off which would be just my luck)! Right, off out on the town to get pie-faced!
See ya Tuesday
[glow=red,2,300]the poor playing surface at Hurst Cross[/glow]
Called off then on tuesday??
[glow=red,2,300]You just got the feeling it was going to be one of those days. The pitch certainly didn’t help, as well as been incredibly heavy there was a huge slope on it and it certainly stopped playing a passing game[/glow]
good view from dubai then??? one team played a successful passing game and scored twice without help from the referee the other just wasn’t good enough [shadow=red,left](but don’t admit it… you battered us 1-2)[/shadow]
Ashtonian
Facts; your pitch was dreadful, there was a 12inch deep hole near the corner flag down in one end! The quality of the playing surface did not help the game. Our game was called off Tuesday because the pitch was not good enough, yet it would still have been in better condition than yours on Saturday. Player safety and the quality of the football have to be considered.
It was "one of those days", if you check out our results against Marine, Hednesford, Guiseley over the past few weeks you will see we have beaten all the teams around us convincingly. Going into the game at Ashton we had scored 30 goals in our last seven games, were unbeaten away in 3 months and had risen to second in the table. Ashtonian, the league table does not lie at this stage of the season. Remind me again, where are Ashton, 17th I think!
Equally, you will not find many of us that disagree that on Saturday you were the better side, you fought more for the ball and made the chances count. We could not get back into the game second half and whilst we nearly left with a point it would have been very unfair on you with that penalty decision. Plus your keeper made a couple of excellent saves.
Don’t come on ranting without some sensible arguements.
Oh and by the way, the view was fine, I was at the match until the final whistle and went straight to the airport for an 8pm flight, flying home yesterday afternoon to be back for our game last night! FACT.
Good luck for the rest of the season.
Congrats Ashtonian you need a better search engine - Its taken you three days to find the website!!!
Well done on winning your cup final on Saturday but you can’t possibly suggest that you have a good playing surface?
Ashtonian, Lumping the ball 40 yards is not a passing game.
You are a poor team from a godforsaken hellhole of a town, with a ground that looks like it could turn to dust at any second, an awful ploughed field of a pitch, and a pathetic amount of "support" from the yokels.
The league doesn’t lie sunshine.
Which one of the 6 inbreds behind the goal were you exactly? Retard.
Beautifully put Greenie, they were the words I was searching for 
Just the sort of comments which make me far from proud to be a Wittoner.
Not a good performance, end of story. It happens. I’m beginning to feel a bit of a jinx in terms of results but that pitch, however difficult, was the same for both teams. Ashton played on it, nowhere near all long ball stuff, Albion struggled. I’d have liked to have seen the team changed round to get us back into the game but that didn’t happen, instead it was the ref who offered us a lifeline. Stevie Connors should have seen red for an awful retaliatory challenge-if the Ashton player hadn’t jumped out of the way he’d have been carried off, and the penalty was one I’d have been unhappy to see awarded against Albion. 2-1 didn’t flatter Ashton at all, it was one of those days and we maybe ought to try to be a little more gracious about it rather than have a dig at a club which I’ve always thought was one of the more welcoming in recent years.
Now from distant memory, Fleetwood on Saturday might be a quite different matter. 
Fair play Jimbo, but there is nothing worse than idiots like that coming on here and blatently taking the p155.
Where were they before the game? Not quite so brave then…
Fleetwood could be interesting
I think we should refuse to accept accolades like club of the month.They are bad omens for us .
Twice this season we have lost after these.