First League win at home since 7th of November, I think... and all the more welcome for that, although we squeaked through at the end.
Tribute, first, to our two Centre Backs.. who with a combined age of 39 and playing together for the first time, did a really creditable job in shoring up the back line.. helped by the experience of Eddie & Freddie on either side of them.
Not a very distinguished performance, but sometimes that's how they have to be.. and hey, 3 points is 3 points.  Caine stood out in the first half and was rewarded with a really fine individual goal which he set up and executed himself. 

They came on to us solidly for the last 20 minutes but had thankfully left their shooting boots behind in Portsmouth.
Hopefully the many walking wounded will now have a week of R& R before  Tonbridge.
Well done on a gritty, dogged win... with a partly improvised side.
 

Last edited by Rambler (27/1/2024 8:12 PM)

Rambler wrote:

First League win at home since 7th of November, I think... and all the more welcome for that, although we squeaked through at the end.
Tribute, first, to our two Centre Backs.. who with a combined age of 39 and playing together for the first time, did a really creditable job in shoring up the back line.. helped by the experience of Eddie & Freddie on either side of them.
Not a very distinguished performance, but sometimes that's how they have to be.. and hey, 3 points is 3 points.  Caine stood out in the first half and was rewarded with a really fine individual goal which he set up and executed himself. 

They came on to us solidly for the last 20 minutes but had thankfully left their shooting boots behind in Portsmouth.
Hopefully the many walking wounded will now have a week of R& R before  Tonbridge.
Well done on a gritty, dogged win... with a partly improvised side.
 

Something else to note and only through what I’m told but no Bray, Holloway, Haines. Ellison on the bench but injured. Ed Williams hadn’t trained all week. Freddie Grant a doubt with illness until this morning. Nearly half our starting 11 so well done for digging in.

Not much of a match - mainly uninspiring and not many highlights but a rare home win. Personally - would like to see us attack more. Thought we once again sat back and apart from some sporadic moments - the goal being one - we offered little going forward. Fortunately for us Havant despite being more positive - were wasteful and lacking in front of goal.

Agree with Oldman about the new lad in the defence. Came straight in and looked quite confident.

The 3 points is all that mattered today. On a side note I have noticed for a while now that players and management have not come over to the supporters at the end of the game. They were straight off today.

Interesting to think, as Blackandamber suggests, we’ve settled for mid-table security.  I certainly haven’t, and I know plenty of realistic Chippenham supporters are of the same opinion.  We’re a club constantly punching above our weight in a very competitive and demanding league and to achieve a mid-table finish has to be a real achievement - we’ve still got some work to do to get to the magical 50 points, then we can see how much further we can go.  If you want to watch a team settling for mid-table security then the County Ground is the place to be (sadly) where they have probably the poorest squad for many years 😉.

4 points from two very contrasting home games this week is a good return, especially with injury disruptions and having a very inexperienced central defensive pairing yesterday.  Hats off to them, I thought they were magnificent. 
P.S. it must take a good team to beat Maidstone 😉