Ashton v Halesowen

Not sure if this should be in here or the off-topic section?

And I know we all hate talking about those Brummies up the road.  But if anyone is interested, you can listen to their game tonight at Ashton live on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Would not suprise me if they don't put much of an effort tonight!

How predictable.

Yeltz misplace backbone they mysteriously discovered against us.

Think this is slightly unfair against a good team, long trip, kick off delayed.
I don't think Halesowen would deliberately play badly because of Stourbridge, certainly the players wouldn't and I do know some of them.

After last nights results, you can now see why I said after the Matlock game that 3 points are more important than an improved performance.  And if we don't get 3 points tomorrow, all of those draws we've had during the season could come back to haunt us.  As well as the home loss to Ramsbottom.

Yes an improved performance would be required once we were in the play-offs, but to get there it's maximum points that are needed from each game regardless of how well we play.

And to be fair to Halesowen they didn't really need to put any effort into their game last night, after all they are mid-table with no chance of going up or down.  So in reality they had nothing to gain or lose from the game except their pride.

I certainly don't think they would have deliberately lost the game, and against us it was always going to be different as it is a local derby.

I expect both Ashton and Workington to win their last match so the pressure really is on us now.

We need two points to ensure a play off spot unless Workington win by 7 goals in their last match,that means a draw v Frickley and v Salford would see us squeak through but these are two matches we could easily lose,I'll admit I'm extremely nervous ahead of the upcoming games.

A win against Frickley would ensure the play offs and give us a big boost ahead of Saturday so I hope we go their and really go at them from the off,no "slow start" and no "sitting deep" in the last few minutes if we are ahead.

The problem with the Frickley match is that if we lose and Ashton and Workington then win on Saturday we then have to beat a very good Salford side so we simply cannot afford a loss on Thursday night.

So frustrating when you consider the last minute Matlock equaliser.

Hope I'm wrong but I have a horrible feeling about the next three days.

Devil's Advocate wrote:Hope I'm wrong but I have a horrible feeling about the next three days.

So until the final whistle tomorrow night, you could say it's "Squeaky Bum Time"

With so much at stake, one thing to our advantage is that we've got players who have considerable experience.

The likes of Stuart, Junior, Justin, Karl and Leon all have many high-pressure match-days at the back of them.

Throw in Gary's history as well and we have a team that should not lose its nerve, with our less-experienced players not having to look very far for guidance and examples.

Hope this has made fellow supporters feel a bit more confident but, having said that, following Twitter tonight will further age me !!!

Best of luck tonight, lads !

redpike wrote:we have a team that should not lose its nerve

The only problem with that comment, is the fact that more than once this season we've thrown away games by conceding late goals.  The most obvious and recent being at Matlock.

But the players will know what's at stake and how important these games are to the club, so hopefully everything will turn out alright.  My only concern is our defence, after all what's the point of having a good keeper and a striker who can score goals if we're going to give them away at the other end.

Goal difference could play a big part in guaranteeing a play-off place, so we need to make sure that our back four are as tight as possible.

I just wish I could have been there tonight to give the players support, but unfortunately I can't so I will also be relying on twitter.  COYG

I was at Ashton on Tuesday, the players didn't arrive until 7:30pm due to the horrific traffic on the M6 and around Manchester, we had a young kid in goal and were playing against a side very much in need of the points. John Hill named a similar side and formation to that that did so well away at Darlington where we were unfortunate to not come back from there with a point. Ashton are a very decent side, they're going to be difficult to beat for any side in the play offs. Ashton handled the way we played much better than Darlington and their style of football worked for them. There was certainly no rolling over to allow them to win, we were beaten well by a much better side on the night and the players wanted to win as much on Tuesday as pretty much any other game this season even though you might think it might have an end of season feel to it. Around 30/35 Yeltz fans traveled up there on Tuesday night and the players certainly gave their all, hence why they were applauded off at the end.