View from the bench

  13 February 2010

  Programme notes from Manager Keith McMahon

" Well it’s been a pretty decent week for us. It started really bad with a very poor 3-0 defeat against Romford at home a week on Tuesday ago. The pitch just passed a pitch inspection and was very boggy. It was the worst I have ever seen here, but I had to give credit to Keith our grounds man for getting the game on. In the end I wish he didn’t.

We didn’t turn up on the night and Romford, to their credit, played very well and deserved to beat us. For a change we lacked any work rate and it seemed as if the lads had thought they had won the game before it began.

Romford worked extremely hard all night and their front two were a constant threat all night. To make matters worse, we had Marcus Perona sent off, for an unbelievable decision at the end, when he went to shoot at goal, but the defender just nicked it of him and he shot into thin air. The ref ran over and gave him a straight red card.

I thought the ref had an excellent game before this and after the game I asked him why he had sent him off. He said that Marcus went to kick the player on purpose. The linesmen on our side saw exactly what I did, and the ref said that they would have a chat and if he thought he was wrong then he would come and tell me. After his shower he came straight in and said the decision stands and all the officials were in agreement, which was a lie as the linesmen on our side still said that he didn’t think it was that. I don’t mind it too much when refs make wrong decisions as long as they can admit it afterwards. What I hate is when gutless ones lie about things because they can’t admit they were wrong. Now I have a player that has done sod all wrong suspended for three very important games, because some bloke can’t be a man and admit he was wrong.

Anyway moving on, last Saturday saw us travel to Brentwood in what I thought was going to be a very difficult game. I was without Rikki Cable from suspension and I had signed Lee Barnett from Chatham in the week. I also put a couple of 7 day approaches in for players just to freshen things up a bit.

We didn’t start to well and Brentwood had a lot of the ball without really hurting us. We looked very nervous from Tuesday night’s defeat and things started to go wrong. I lost new signing Lee Barnett in the first 15 minutes with an eye injury. Then five minutes later I lost skipper Lewis Tozer with a groin strain. I thought “here we go…”. I brought on youngsters Calum Macgeehan and Raphael Momundo and this seemed to inject some life into us. Andy Constable nearly put us in front when he hit the post, then he did manage to score after a bit of good football, chipping the keeper from 25 yards out. We were well on top now and I thought we needed another goal. We nearly got it before the break when centre back James Campbell had an over head kick crash against the cross bar.

The second half saw us dominate and we went 2-0 up with a great strike from Calum. He nearly doubled his tally two minutes later when another long range effort smash the cross bar. Brentwood did have a go in the last 10 minutes but we defended superbly and held out for a clean sheet.

Wednesday night saw us travel to Waltham Forest in what again I thought was a very tough game. Waltham Forest are now managed by our old reserves team managers, Phil Miles and Terry Malin. They also had two ex Mead players in Pedro Knight and Peter Smith. Add this with the awful pitch over there and I was thinking that if we come away with a point then I would be happy.

Before we got to the ground we had a massive snow storm which in the space of 15 minutes saw every thing covered. I didn’t think the game would go ahead but the ref said it was fine so it was played. We came out of the blocks really well and were dominating the game.

Andy Constable scored again for us keeping his unbelievable scoring run going. Lew Tozer added a second just before half time. In the second half it was more of the same, although they did give us a scare for a few minutes when they pulled a goal back from a nothing free kick.

The lads responded well and young Lea Dawson scored a screamer to give us back a two goal lead and five minutes later he headed his second and our forth to give us all the points. I was over the moon with our performance. We won every battle, especially in midfield where I thought Browny, Pikey and Voldy were excellent. It was a great team performance and the three points lifted us back into second place, and still in with a chance of the play offs.

On to today’s game. Again I’m expecting another really hard game. We played Redbridge and beat them 2-1 away earlier in the season in a very close game and I’m expecting the same again.

We will have to be on top form to get anything from the game today as this league has shown that if you play poorly then anyone can beat anyone. So let’s hope the lads are on it today and we can get a vital three points.

"

The Gaffer - Keith McMahon

Watch the gaffa at work on the BBC - click here

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