July
Newsfile

Newsfile Archive

Freeze frame. City 2 up with 30 mins to go. They are playing the team at the bottom of Div 2, a team with no points and no goals.

What could go wrong?

Everything.

Daniel Gabbidon was beaten to the ball in the box and while the challenge appeared innocuous a penalty was awarded and Gabbidon was on the verge of being sent off. Only a flag from the linesman persueded the ref to give only a yellow card.

Then 4 mins later another ball into the City left side of defence saw Gabbidon and Prior beaten with Legg being beaten by the attacker who hammered the equaliser home.

A draw is a draw, its not a defeat but hell it feels like one.

13,000 odd City fans were let down today. City dominated without dominating. It was a funny old game but a 5 - 0 City scoreline would not have been out of place. Thats how odd it was to see City under pressure defending against a potential winner from Bournemouth.

I suppose I should put it down to one of those things but it hurts. Michael Simpkins was injured in a heroic last gasp challenge. City were never as good after he went off.

Josh Low was under par again, Prior was good but made errors. Gabbidon and Legg were caught out.

To rub salt in Willie Boland was sent off after what appeared to be a 50/50 challenge saw Boland come off best. It was a big shock when he was yellow carded for the second time and was sent off. In fairness to Willie he ran his socks off all game.

This was a harsh lesson for City. With a two week break a win was vital and they failed. If they have any hopes of another automatic promotion then these games have to be won.

Alan Cork said afterwards

"I certainly hope my players learn their lessons for some very sloppy mistakes, for some reason I can't explain, we went through ten minutes of absolute chaos and need to raise our concentration levels."

Next up its Reading on Sep 8th. No more mistakes please.