Alas poor York

[GodalmingYellow]

Actually they weren't poor, though I did expect a little more from them attacking wise.

For me this represents a good strong performance, against an in form contender.

Possibly our best performance this season.

Some good passing football.

Absolute quality from Burgess.

Basham's best game for literally years.

Pettefer controlled the ball winning.

Back line very strong and organised.

Hutchinson's best game for us so far.

My only slight gripe is the sub of Duffy which should have happened 20 minutes earlier.

Generally very pleased.

Now comes the tricky part. Doing it against the minnow teams.

[boris]

You bugger GY - that was going to be my match report headline. Now I've got to try and think of an even worse pun!

[Old Abingdonian]

I thought Pettefer was outstanding yesterday - predicted their passes, got everywhere, made some excellent runs.

My gripes - too much space for their players in our box on a few occasions (or can we rely on the inability to finish in the Conference?), and Quinn's distribution.

[Sideshow Rob]

Ancelet could be a great player if he made better decisions. He should have scored that chance in the first half but elected to round the keeper after a bad first touch. Generally he takes too many touches and tries to turn defenders needlessly when he's already beaten them with pace. His crossing is improving but I still think he would be better as an out an out winger in a 4-4-2 formation.

Pettifer goes from strength to strength. Many have compaired him to Martin Gray and Dave Smith but I think he is more creative than either and the Les Phillips comparison is more apt. He has a great engine and it is one of the reasons we tend to finish games stronger than the opposition.

Burgess - worth the admission money alone on that performance. I'm a bit concerned that the scouts at the game apparently gave him 10 out of 10 in all categories. I think he could play in the Championship easily and there is a danger that a club will make an offer for him in the new year.

[Matt D]

york did look okay, but after a month's worths of games where i've worried about below par performances, the team upped the standard and rarely looked troubled.

excellent performance from basham, and considering the fact that he must be eager to keep up the pecking order of club goalscorers, a very selfless pass to set up burgess. it was from quite a way out, so he was never going to miss!

duffy was good i thought, unlucky not to score more. why did we persist in using basham as a target man when we went long though?

i agree anaclet still looks frustrating in that given more confidence and better decision-making, he would be far more effective. but he does cause sides a problem down that wing, and i'm coming round to the view that there's not much point moaning if he's doing that.

burgess showed some class, but my favourite moment was gilly racing across the pitch, to fly into a tackle, all the while organizing the rest of the defence. THAT'S why he's captain.

coming away from a game like that, i'm having to really try hard to keep my optimism in check. what a nice problem.

[DLT]

Optimism in check!

It is a real problem isn't it.

Southport, Forest Green, Kidderminster, Altrincham, Cambridge.

I can't see us taking any less than 11 points from those games. Hopefully Jim is a little less starry eyed than I am and keeps the players concentrating.

As Matt says after winning in an unconvncing fashion for a month yesterday was very impressive.

[Baboo]

It has all been said really. In fact GY summed up my feelings on the game in the first post. I thought Petteffer was awesome but even being awesome wasn't quite enough to win him motm in my opinion. For sheer skill and ability at this level it has to be Burgess. (Not that I've voted mind you. I'm not given the option. Perhaps I've been disallowed as Junior got their first and we use the same machine)

[Resurrection Ox]

Actually they weren't poor, though I did expect a little more from them attacking wise.

For me this represents a good strong performance, against an in form contender.

Possibly our best performance this season.

Some good passing football.

Absolute quality from Burgess.

Basham's best game for literally years.

Pettefer controlled the ball winning.

Back line very strong and organised.

Hutchinson's best game for us so far.

My only slight gripe is the sub of Duffy which should have happened 20 minutes earlier.

Generally very pleased.

Now comes the tricky part. Doing it against the minnow teams.

Good summary. We played well yet only needed third gear. Hutchinson 's muscle and Pettifer endeavour paved the way for Burgess. York's defence was the slowest seen this season however. Made Basham look like Andy Johnson.

Onto Southport. I reckon we'll get 4. At least.

[boris]

It has all been said really. In fact GY summed up my feelings on the game in the first post. I thought Petteffer was awesome but even being awesome wasn't quite enough to win him motm in my opinion. For sheer skill and ability at this level it has to be Burgess. (Not that I've voted mind you. I'm not given the option. Perhaps I've been disallowed as Junior got their first and we use the same machine)

Yep, it's done by IP address I'm afraid. The only answer is to do as I do, and not let your kids use your PC (certainly not before you've had a go first).

[A-Ro]

Yep, it's done by IP address I'm afraid. The only answer is to do as I do, and not let your kids use your PC (certainly not before you've had a go first).

Sorry Boris I seem to have found a loophole in the system. You may find that Steve Basham's vote is slightly skewed.

[Kernow Yellow]

Onto Southport. I reckon we'll get 4. At least.

I hope the players are less complacent than you.

I'm still haunted by omens from 12 years ago. Newly relegated team, unbeaten start, top of the league. Then came October, we lost to the worst team in the division, and things went downhill rapidly. Our next two games are against the two worst teams in the Conference. I'm a little apprehensive...

[Isaac]

I think some fear is healthy, I still think that eventually we'll have be punished by an opposition striker having a good day. I thought that for the most part the game was pretty even and open. York created a fair number of chances, especially in the 1st half and similar to other games they missed them all. The 2nd goal killed them off though so the last 20 minutes was pretty comfortable. York looked a good side but it's encouraging that it was probably (from what I hear as this was only my 4th game) our best performance of the season.

I'm just repeating what others said but I thought Pettefer and Burgess were both outstanding, I think Pettefer is the more valuable player for us as he seems to read the game better than most midfielders in this league and he can pass and tackle. Burgess, rightly, is given a free role by Smith so he only seems to influence the game if the team is playing well and on top. In keeping with the tradition of comparing this side to the last Smith team in the 80's, I'd agree that Pettefer is Les Phillips but suggest that Burgess reminds me of Hebberd.

[Resurrection Ox]

Onto Southport. I reckon we'll get 4. At least.

I hope the players are less complacent than you.

I'm still haunted by omens from 12 years ago. Newly relegated team, unbeaten start, top of the league. Then came October, we lost to the worst team in the division, and things went downhill rapidly. Our next two games are against the two worst teams in the Conference. I'm a little apprehensive...

Scaredy cat. Re read what you've just posted. They are the 'two worst teams in the Conference'. Worse than Stafford. Worse than Northwich.

[Ancient Colin]

Burgess provides the creative spark - the gulf between the performance on Saturday and at Stafford was huge (obviously helped by the better pitch, water slides notwithstanding). I also heard that thing about scouts looking at Burgess marking their cards favourably on RadOx and that's got to be a real concern for January. I suppose it depends on how high up the pyramid the bids come from ... he'd be damn hard to replace and, even if he does have a long contract, he'd go to a championship or big league one team, I presume. As a lifelong Basham carper, I think I should go on record to echo the positive words about him too. Although not to the extent of distorting the RageOnline poll to the disbenefit of Burgess and Pettefer ...

Generally I thought Anaclet was pretty good on Saturday and it's really good that he makes himself available so readily as an outlet. But some of you have obviously taken advantage of the Specsavers yellow lens glasses offers. Look, there's a simple explanation for why he doesn't try to go outside players: he isn't particularly quick. Not slow at all, just not explosively fast, not fast enough to push and run. The few times he did try to go round a marker, he failed and generally lost the ball. Roll the ball wide for him to run onto, that's fine, but ball at feet, skin them on the outside, um no. I don't think it's a confidence thing. More evidence - when he was chasing back against their balding ancient-looking left sided bloke, he took an age to get there. So the idea that you could play him as an out and out winger doesn't seem altogether wise - and rather unfair on him, too.

[Resurrection Ox]

Burgess provides the creative spark - the gulf between the performance on Saturday and at Stafford was huge (obviously helped by the better pitch, water slides notwithstanding). I also heard that thing about scouts looking at Burgess marking their cards favourably on RadOx and that's got to be a real concern for January. I suppose it depends on how high up the pyramid the bids come from ... he'd be damn hard to replace and, even if he does have a long contract, he'd go to a championship or big league one team, I presume. As a lifelong Basham carper, I think I should go on record to echo the positive words about him too. Although not to the extent of distorting the RageOnline poll to the disbenefit of Burgess and Pettefer ...

Generally I thought Anaclet was pretty good on Saturday and it's really good that he makes himself available so readily as an outlet. But some of you have obviously taken advantage of the Specsavers yellow lens glasses offers. Look, there's a simple explanation for why he doesn't try to go outside players: he isn't particularly quick. Not slow at all, just not explosively fast, not fast enough to push and run. The few times he did try to go round a marker, he failed and generally lost the ball. Roll the ball wide for him to run onto, that's fine, but ball at feet, skin them on the outside, um no. I don't think it's a confidence thing. More evidence - when he was chasing back against their balding ancient-looking left sided bloke, he took an age to get there. So the idea that you could play him as an out and out winger doesn't seem altogether wise - and rather unfair on him, too.

York's number 11 , (Bowey(?)) was quite the oldest looking footballer I have ever seen. Looked like Peter Reid. But even slower.