Chippenham 1 down

Well, that was good spirit to fight back to draw level, considering we were lacking several integral players. It does show that we lack depth a bit, as a squad, but it was still good to see the work rate. Kent was massive in goal, too

The referee was appalling, but that can't be helped. What can be changed is charging us an extra pound on the ticket price after the debacle of a season last time around, frankly it's disgraceful.

Under the circumstances with Griff, Phillips and Tindle out injured and then Coupe and Smith both injured during the game with Tyron red carded this was worth a point. 2 great saves from Kent. But we do look a bit threadbare with so many wounded and experienced unavailable. Ref was poor and being assessed so it might be a while before we see him again

It's true we've got numbers but we're struggling with key positions it seems.  I was told Tindle wasn't quite fit enough to risk, so hopefully he'll be ok for Saturday, but it doesn't look good for Coupe and Smith.
Now to the game.  I thought we started quite brightly but then it became scrappy.  When is Guthrie going to learn?  He gets a yellow (lucky it wasn't red) then not long afterwards kicks the ball away.  With Paulton squealing for everything he was lucky to stay on.  Thankfully he did as he was decent in the second half and posed a threat.  The referee's downfall was his failure to see Coupe get caught late.  If he didn't see it I'm sure the Assistant would have.  The clue's in the name, he's there to "assist" surely?  And why did the referee blatantly ignore any communication with our dug-out?  Surely just an admission that he didn't see it would have gone some way to diffuse it?   The other linesman was culpable in the second half too.  The keeper didn't have his hands on the ball when Edwards won the challenge.  He would have been perfectly positioned to see it but made no attempt to get involved.  Weak.  As for the sending off, the Paulton player went down like a sack of spuds from little contact it seemed to me, his mates squealed again and off Tyrone went.  And why only a yellow for Perrott (?) for catching Smith and sending him off to hospital? 
As for the football that was  a good result for us in the circumstances, a) because we never seem to beat them (even going back to western league days) and  b) the injuries and set-backs we had to deal with.  We'd have gone under in recent times but got our reward.  Well done lads.  Great work from Kent, he was my m-o-m.