After Saturday's nightmare we have to get a win tonight to keep our promotion dream alive. If there was anything good to come out of the Donny debacle it was the performances of Clarke, Defoe and especially Matete who in the limited time they had to shine showed that they could give us a lot more impetus. I hope that all three will be on from the start today. On Saturday it was horrible to see us repeatedly dawdling around near the half-way line passing it sideways while the Donny defence got back into position and Matete in particular was much more direct than that. We've already beaten Cheltenham 5-0 this season and they're on a bad run too with four draws and a defeat in their last five league matches so we surely have a good chance of coming away with the points (ha ha). I'll be watching the game online and my match prediction is a 2-0 win to us.
I got the team-news about 7.00 and I was pleased to see a number of changes from Saturday’s starting line-up. Hoffmann and Gooch were nowhere to be seen while Hume was making his debut at last and Patterson was in goal. Matete, Clarke and Dajaku were in and Neil, Embleton and Winchester were on the bench. Defoe was still on the bench. I felt more confident about my 2-0 prediction after I’d seen our line-up.
I got the stream online and the pitch looked good. In the opening minutes two things struck me – Charlie May looked a real handful down their right and we were still passing it sideways and backwards in our own half. In the fifth minute Clarke got the ball down our left, ran forward and hit a low shot that wasn’t far wide. Our fans were making all the noise. In the eleventh minute a great cross from Clarke was headed against the bar by Stewart who was ruled offside but we were showing some promise.
We were pressing their defenders well forcing a couple of errors and I could see us nicking a goal that way. In the opening quarter of an hour we’d done most of the pressing and Patterson had had very little to do. Elsewhere M.K. Dons were 1-0 up. Pritchard had a weak shot on target and then Evans had a go from just outside their box but it was well wide. Just after the half-hour mark we won a free-kick just outside their box after battling build-up play by Matete. Pritchard, who’d been fouled, took it and hit a beautiful shot into the top right corner to put us ahead. Just afterwards Pritchard provided a cross from the right that Dajaku headed on target but Evans in goal tipped it over for our second corner. Boyle was the first player to be yellow-carded after he fouled Clarke on the half-way line. Clarke had impressed so far with his powerful runs and passing. It remained 1-0 at the break and we deserved the lead though Cheltenham looked like they had a goal in them so we needed to get a second soon. Clarke, Hume and especially Matete had looked good. Matete certainly took some shaking off the ball. Rotherham, Wycombe and Wigan’s matches were all goalless at the break and Oxford were losing 1-0. So far, so good.
We were hassling and pressing from the restart. Five minutes in, Batth was booked for a foul and the resultant free-kick was amusing as two Cheltenham shaped up for a fancy move but then neither of them hit the ball. When they did get it together, it went out for a goal-kick. By the fifty-fifth minute we’d gone off the boil and Cheltenham were pressing a lot more than they had. There was good news from Hillsborough where Wednesday had taken the lead against Wigan. Cheltenham made a like for like change on the hour-mark and I wondered when we’d bring Defoe on. In the sixty-fourth minute Cheltenham levelled and it was a great effort by Bonds whom we allowed to penetrate our defence and lash a shot high into the net. Almost immediately May had a good shot on target forcing Patterson to dive and save. We woke up and Hume combined well with Stewart who shot into their side netting. With twenty minutes to go we still hadn’t made any changes and Cheltenham had been given a boost by their equaliser. Dajaku hadn’t had much of a sniff in the second-half and he was replaced by Roberts a few minutes later but there was bad news as Rotherham had gone 1-0 ahead. A Pritchard effort was cleared off the line and there was still plenty of time for either side to get the winner. Having just written that May put them ahead after our defence had failed to close down an attack and he hit a fierce shot from the right of our box. With about ten minutes left we brought on Defoe for Clarke and not long after that Embleton replaced Evans. With his first touch Defoe hit a shot on target and we continued to press but Roberts was booked for diving in their box. Matete was then booked for a foul. Five minutes of stoppage-time were announced and at that stage I’d have been more than happy with 2-2. We won two corners in the last minute but they came to nothing and it ended 2-1.
A poor second-half show in which we allowed Cheltenham to stroll unchallenged through the middle of our defence gave us what we deserved. That makes it three defeats on the trot, including two against sides in very bad form, and if we don’t stop the rot soon we’ll end up in mid-table or worse.
