FA Cup replay - Whitehawk

An excellent performance by the whole team tonight in front of a 1,993 crowd, what more could you ask for?  3 brilliant goals by Lait & Benbow in a 2nd half where we seemed to just steamroller past them.

Cracking atmosphere especially in the shed, and an excellent idea to kick that end 2nd half (If we made the decision?).  I thought we could win the game, but I certainly didn't expect the final score to be 3-0.

Congratulations to every one, and bring on the Cobblers in the next round. And I hope their manager enjoyed watching tonight's game as he was in the crowd somewhere...

Stour ay we

On a balmy November evening, we were lucky to witness yet another unforgettable cup occasion where we eventually outclassed, outfought and outshone a team from one step above us in the pyramid.

In the 1st half, both teams cancelled each other out with too much reliance on the long ball and not much football with the notable exception of Kayelden who showed some nice touches. In the 2nd period and buoyed up by Chris's excellent goal, we visibly grew in confidence and started to play good football and, even though the statistics suggest otherwise, the victory turned turned out to be comfortable with Matt never being seriously
troubled.

All 14 players gave 100% with nobody afraid to get stuck in where it hurt and putting bodies in front of the ball.

With last night's bench not even including Jordan, Lewis and Connor, I was wrong to suggest that our squad wasn't strong enough.

A special word for Chris who always seems to save his best form for high-profile matches. At times, he can be a bit selfish but his trademark direct running terrorised Whitehawk's defence. In my humble opinion, he was our best player.

Well done to all of our players and also to Gary and management team. A big pat-on-the-back to all those officials and volunteers who must have worked tirelessly to ensure that another big occasion went off smoothly. One point I'd like to make is that the Main Stand area at times became congested with people tyring to get to the Shed End. Perhaps they should have been encouraged to go around the cricket area.

With the euphoria now beginning to die down. let's look at the next 4 matches all at home. 9 points please and then........Northampton !!!

With our already healthy coffers being swelled by a further £18k and with the next cup game generating considerable income streams, the club's future is set up nicely and makes our dreams that much more of a reality.

What a night.....what a truly memorable night to add to the ever growing list of unforgettable matches.
That must surely rank is one of the best all round team performances for a long time. Action, skill, excitement , bravery and those all important goals. Well done to every single squad member, every body played their part and in the end we deserved the win and the margin of the win, the score line did not flatter it reflected the undiminshed truth....Stour were worthy winners.
So how do you pick a man of that match ? For me it was Chris Lait whose penetrating runs at the heart of the Whitehawk defence caused all sorts of problems for the visitors, and it was fitting that he scored the all important first goal. But it could so easily be Luke for his two goals, or Kristian for another none stop all action game or Kayo for running himself into the ground.....if he could have lasted the full 90 I would have voted for him. Or how about capn Tom ? The celebrations at the end said it all....brilliant, just brilliant.
The adventure continues........COYG !
ps.....well done too to Gary and co for sending them out as they did....Bostin......bloody Bostin !!

Personally I would give MOTM to Matt Gould, for his performance especially in the 1st half. But it really is a difficult decision given the performance of the entire team.

The only thing that bothered me about last night was the fact that there were nearly 2,000 supporters in the ground, yet all the noise was being made from one stand the shed. We really need to try and generate more noise from other parts of the ground.

The man of the match voting was as follows;

LUKE BENBOW. 19

Chris Lait. 12

Kristian Green. 7

Dan Scarr. 3

Leon Broadhurst 2

Junior Smikle 1

MIKE AVERY won the wine.

Thanks to everyone who took part.

redpike wrote:and makes our dreams that much more of a reality.

I just hope those dreams relate to the future of the club, and not a bronze statue of "TCP" outside the ground

An amazing night, possibly only surpassed by the Plymouth game at Amblecote.

I thought it was a better performance and result than the Kiddy game in many ways. Against Kiddy, we had the benefit of starting like a freight train and from then it looked all over. With this game, we had to keep our performance level so high for so long before we got our richly deserved rewards in the second half.

Everyone had a good game again - Dodd faded a bit but I don't think he is 100% match fit. Tonks and Leon never stopped working in the middle of the park; Tonks has been carrying a knock from that Skelmersdale tackle a few weeks back as well. Leon had quite comfortably his best game of the season after struggling for top form in recent weeks.

Thought Green and Westlake were particularly brilliant at the back. I queried the signing of Westlake a while ago because I thought we were damn good in that position already, but I like the defensive formation now.

Laity had his best game of the season as well - and finally is starting to look like his old self again. Sheer persistence from him and Browny got the first goal, and a lovely finish too. Another trademark surging run set up the second, and then Luke got his reward for a battling performance with a sublime third to cap off another superb evening.

Huge crowd - much better than I expected (but looked over 2,000 to me...!) and how nice not to have a silly pitch invasion, meaning the players & managers could lap up the applause of the whole crowd which they richly deserved. What a night!

Might sound like rose tinted specs - but I thought the referee did OK, and didn't warrant the kind of blame being attributed to him from Whitehawk's official twitter. He gave lots of soft free kicks both ways, as you'd expect from a higher level referee, but thought he was largely consistent.

Onwards to Northampton!