Overall, it's now four wins on the bounce, with the last three all in the league at home and won by the same score. So we find ourselves in quite a good place at the moment, and that belief, I think, is helping the team come through difficult situations and find a way to win even if we're not at our best. I expected it to be tough as Montpelier had just had a manager change, the pitch was a bit of a leveller and we had a number of players missing, despite welcoming Tobe Uzor back for the first time in several weeks.

The missing players forced a few changes and as a result, we weren’t particularly fluent but were the better side. As usual, we had a few moments and broke the deadlock mid-way through the half with another good finish from Bailey Ellis. I had spoken about breaking our opponent's spirit and felt that if we had scored again we would have done so and given ourselves a more comfortable afternoon. Right at the end of the half, we made a mistake from a corner and Montpelier was level.

At half time it was all about ensuring that we played the second half on the front foot and hoping for an early goal to set Montpelier Villa back again. We got that from our corner when Curtis Ford capitalised on a goalkeeping mistake and it did settle us again. It was still all about the next goal in the game and with 20 or so to go we had a great opportunity but Bobby Bennett spurned the chance with a wayward finish and it left us to deal with the last quarter of the match with just a 1 goal lead. Substitutions for both teams disrupted the game and it helped us more than I had expected as neither side put any further meaningful phases of play together in the last 20. Although you remain on edge until the final whistle we never really had much to worry about, then again, neither did they and I was grateful for the way the game drifted through to its conclusion.

Another win and a free week as we prepare for a tough game away at Arundel on Saturday.

Gaffer Glynn Stephens
First Team Manager