Ahead of Tuesday’s league match at Real Bedford (7:45 KO), manager Tim Flowers has looked at our opponents and given an update on two player departures. He starts by reflecting on Saturday’s trip to Bury…
“Looking back at the footage of Bury and it was pretty much what I saw on the day – first half, we was comfortably in charge of the game and coming in at 0-0 after creating so many decent chances was down to their keeper, but maybe we need to be a little more brutal and spiteful when we get into those good areas.
“Some of our play going forward was very good – good runs from midfield, good link up play and support to Tyrone up front, and we also nullified what they had going forward.
“Second half – I felt for the period around the time they scored, we sagged away too deep, and the quality of the goal they scored was poor from our point of view. George Quantrell has run diagonally across the face of our box for about 30 yards and he’s on his wrong foot running away from goal, but we allow him back onto his good foot in the box and that’s poor defending. We’re sitting too deep and not getting our press on like we was in the first half.
“But, we responded well to going behind. The quality of our goal was good from our point of view – a terrific diagonal ball out, a great one touch ball to Billy Shaw who drives into the box, cuts it into Luke Benbow, who spins his man – it’s a really good move. The little things we are working on in training – the switching of play, the corner box run from our 10 to support our wing back, a good quality ball into feet in the box and good quality front play from Luke.
“We ended up probably hanging on a bit at the end with their set pieces but, again, we’d gone deep, and we were getting counter attacked from our own plays. All in all, I think we probably should have ended up winning the game, but a point on the road is not to be sniffed at.
“Ethan Young has gone back off his loan – with Jaden Charles being available again, we’ve got cover on the left hand side. Ethan did well for us and we thank Peterborough Sports very much. Josh Ezewele has gone after a seven day approach on Friday afternoon – there is nothing I can do about that.
“Real Bedford are a very good, technical side, with some good players for the level. It’s a good club in terms of them moving forward and they’ve got some power financially – they’ve got together a really good team and will be currently eyeing the top three with their games in hand. Clearly, they’ve had a strong season so far, so we’re going to have to fight really hard, which is what we will set out to do.
“As I’ve said before, we’re trying to bring players in but it’s not easy – sometimes you put seven days in for players and they can drag it along and, in the end, they don’t want to come or just stay where they are, despite not playing. So, it is what it is – we’ll keep trying and working with what we’ve got.
“The lads we’ve got are working hard – can I ask for better quality at times? Yes, but am I getting the work ethic that I require? Yes – I’m getting the non negotiable side of it but we’re always looking to get that extra quality in to stand you in good stead in this division.
“It’s an ongoing thing, and I don’t expect miracles because of where we are in the division but, somewhere down the line, we’ll get some faces in and others will see it’s a good club to be at.”
