Witton team<br><br>Worsnop, Hockenhull, Brownhill, Pritchard, Barras, Gahgan, Spearritt, Connors, Warlow, Sanasay, Peers.<br><br>Subs: Frost, Alistair Brown, Moseley.<br><br>
Latest Score: LINCOLN UNITED 1 WITTON ALBION 0.<br><br>Lincoln take the lead from the spot.
Spearritt in midfield again >:(<br><br>Ali Brown always does ok when he plays there, dunno why he isn’t given a run for a few games.
Half Time Score: LINCOLN UNITED 1 WITTON ALBION 0.
No Whalley? is he playing for Crewe today?
Full Time Score: LINCOLN UNITED 1 WITTON ALBION 0.
Whalley is ill.
Just got back - very disappointing day.<br>Dubious penalty I believe - didnt see it - they hit the bar. that was it.<br>They were very organised at the back and with a goal to defend did just that. <br>we had many more chances but created very little with so much of the ball.<br>The whole speraitt in midfield thing is causing much concern amongst the onlooking fans. Hopefully when brown is back and jones we’ll be a bit more balanced.<br>Win Tuesday and we’ll forget it.
Neil u forgot Peersy hit the post during a very good 20 min period in the first half.<br>Cant explain our performance in the second half.<br><br>But thats football for u :-/<br><br>
I don’t know why we couldn’t continue our form from Wednesday night.<br>If we’d played like we did on Wednesday we would have stuffed Lincoln today.<br><br>Down to 9th now but only 3 points away from 2nd.<br>Its looking very tight at the moment.
Top scorers in the league. just need to tighten up a bit at the back!!<br>I think we’re 5 points off top spot?? Not too much to be worried about then just yet. If we want to get promoted we need to win our home games, so Tuesday is a biggie.<br><br>By the way, out of the 9 league games played so far, we have played 5 teams from the top 6. i think our points total is quite decent considering this.<br><br>We have Whalley to come back in from yesterday, we have Frostie yet to hit top match-fitness, Alex Brown, Mark Jones still to come back into the team after injury. Adam Foy still in the squad when fit. Griff Jones to come back at some point.<br><br>More positives than negatives i feel.
I conceded the pen. When asking the ref what he gave it for at the time and at half time he clearly stated it was because i obstructed the opponent. When pointed out to him by several players this was an indirect free kick he wouldn’t listen. When i asked him at halftime to clarify he said that the law had changed 2 years ago and that obstruction was now a penalty. Fair enough if thats the case however maybe GE can clarify because from the law below i have impeded the progress of the player and it is therefore an indirect free kick from wherever the offence occurs. Having said that this is a game we should have won no matter what and every body involved is gutted about the result and looking forward to putting it right on tuesday.<br><br>Direct free kick<br><br>A direct free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following six offences in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force:<br><br>kicks or attempts to kick an opponent <br>trips or attempts to trip an opponent <br>jumps at an opponent <br>charges an opponent <br>strikes or attempts to strike an opponent <br>pushes an opponent<br>A direct free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player commits any of the following four offences:<br><br>tackles an opponent to gain possession of the ball, making contact with the opponent before touching the ball <br>holds an opponent <br>spits at an opponent <br>handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)<br>A direct free kick is taken from where the offence occurred.<br><br><br>Penalty kick<br><br>A penalty kick is awarded if any of the above ten offences is committed by a player inside his own penalty area, irrespective of the position of the ball, provided it is in play.<br><br><br>Indirect free kick<br><br>An indirect free kick is awarded to the opposing team if a goalkeeper, inside his own penalty area, commits any of the following five offences:<br><br>takes more than six seconds while controlling the ball with his hands before releasing it from his possession <br>touches the ball again with his hands after it has been released from his possession and has not touched any other player <br>touches the ball with his hands after it has been deliberately been kicked to him by a team-mate <br>touches the ball with his hands after he has received it directly from a throw-in taken by a team-mate<br><br>An indirect free kick is also awarded to the opposing team if a player, in the opinion of the referee:<br><br>plays in a dangerous manner <br>impedes the progress of an opponent <br>prevents the goalkeeper from releasing the ball from his hands <br>commits any other offence, not previously mentioned in Law 12, for which play is stopped to caution or dismiss a player<br><br>The indirect free kick is taken from where the offence occurred.<br><br>
One would also presume that yesterday’s officials have also received notification that when the last defender fouls then he can stay on the field - ie their No 5 who should have walked on 21 mins for stopping Mark Peers running in on goal - but then was allowed to stay on and rubbed our noses really in by proceeding to become the Man of the Match.<br><br>As for the Assistants - yet again different interpretations of whether a player is offside or not were very apparent at least three times in the 2nd half.<br><br>Having said all that apologies lads for coming back off holiday to watch you play. Yep you can blame me as well but in all honesty yesterday too many balls lobbed up to their defence was just a total waste.
Andy I wasn’t refering to what we did - I didn’t honestly think we did too much wrong. That was all they had in the 90 minutes I meant.<br>I can recall several times in the 1st half when we had good shooting opportunities and did work their keeper a bit. did Worsnop have a single thing to do?<br><br>Had that penalty not been given we’d have been fustrated at not getting the win but just a bit off and looking forward to Tuesday. It was poor yes-but I’ve seen a lot worse.<br>Personally at the moment (injuries arent helping though) we need 2 people in the middle who can have an impact on the game. Hopefully Browns return will be a difference which would have bought us something yesterday.
Disappointed to have missed the game saturday, but we need to be philosophical about such results. The league will be very tight this year with all the top teams taking points off each other so no need to panic.<br><br>Lincoln’s tactics (from what I have heard!) are going to be something that we will face on a regular basis. Word will have travelled that we can play good football and score goals from a number of positions, so teams are going to set their stall out to stop us playing and hopefully nick something. In this case it seems they were aided by the ref!<br><br>With regards to midfield, I think Benny and Jim would be the first to admit that Alex Brown will make a difference to us when he is fit and alongside Connors, especially in trying to unlock sides that set their stall out to defend. I am sure Tom is doing his best and would admit he wouldn’t be first choice in midfield if Alex were fit and able - so give the guy your support and lets hope all the lads get fit soon as possible!<br><br>
If you look at last year, we had a horribe time of it when Finley left us (along with alot of the first team) losing alot of points, yet a good xmas and new year saw us challenging for top spot again. ?We then lost most of our first choice 11 for the 2nd time in a few months, and went on something like a 9 match streak without a win (losing the vast majority). ?However, another good run put us back in contention towards the end of the season, before we were finally undone with 26 games in 4 days. ?<br><br>The moral of the story is, stay in contention, and a good xmas/new year can ensure we are challenging come the business end of the season - when ANYTHING can happen.<br><br>ps - Pritch, don’t be to down-hearted. ?You win us far more points than you cost us.<br>Roll on Tuesday!!
I personally think we were unlucky on Saturday, yes it’s true that we had about 90% of the possesion!! but we didnt create any chances 2nd half (apart from one MM half chance) <br>Very unlucky, role on Tuesday 3 points in the bag we can do it!
Blyth weren’t even in the top 5 when we played them at the end of January so I don’t think being top is paramount at this point!<br>Who we have played however does make interesting reading - just disappointment more than anything - we know we can and will do better!<br>
To be fair we could of got something from the Telford game, we had a complete blip against Kendal, should really of won away at Matlock, and ferriby have proved themselves to be a better side than most people would of given them credit for when we hit them for 4 on the opening day.<br>we’ve beaten the teams at the bottom, which is where alot of promotion chasing teams slip up. We just have to keep winning the home games, and take what we can from the away fixtures.<br>I think we’ve got as good a squad as we’ve had for a few years, and that has shown so far this season as we’re only a few points off the top 2 despite not yet being able to field our first-choice 11.
I was probably the nearest Wittoner to the penalty incident, having just arrived in the ground, and it looked no different to the normal defender shielding of the ball we see week in week out. Jon was maybe a bit slow coming to collect the ball.<br>This is just another example of bad refereeing which actually influences the outcome of a game rather than just being an irritant to both teams. Chad is right to question why 5 remained on the pitch but he did and then we lofted too many balls up for him to clear which made him look good!<br>Tom Spearitt looked a different player to Wed night when he played centre back! Surely this is a key issue.