We now need to show the character of winners
4:12pm Friday 11th April 2008
WE are looking forward to probably the biggest week in the recent history of the club, playing three fellow promotion contenders in Darlington, MK Dons and Peterborough.
But as we do so, we can reflect on our last two results and the disappointment of losing to 10-man at Lincoln and then dropping two points against Chester after having gone into a 2-0 lead.
We did not work hard enough in the Lincoln match when it looked as if we took one or two things for granted and paid a heavy penalty.
But that was not the case against Chester.
I thought we worked hard, played reasonably well and created chances. But as the expectations and pressure grow, players’ decision-making tends to be affected by that pressure.
Had we had a little bit more experience in the side in the last few minutes against Chester, we would have run the clock down and kept the ball in their half.
There was no need to score again, the game was won.
But we started with a silly moment in their penalty area where we could have just got the ball down and passed it; we allowed them to take a quick goal-kick; we let them get in behind us resulting in us giving away a corner; we failed to deal with the corner but, even then, we looked as if we had got away with the header which hit the bar. And then the penalty was an aberration.
To be fair to the players, our record this season where, up until Saturday, we had not dropped a single point after taking the lead, was incredible.
That was certainly the best record in League 2 and possibly in all the divisions.
Sooner or later it was going to happen, but now we need to stay nice and calm, try to maintain the confidence that we have had all season to get the ball down and pass it, and go into these three games with that sort of attitude.
While we feel under a little bit of pressure, great things were expected of Darlington this season.
At one stage they looked almost certainties to be promoted, but they have had a terrible run. We still see them as a threat and Stockport have had an incredible sequence of results which has put them very much in contention for the last automatic promotion spot.
In addition to these three matches, we then have another two in quick succession, against Wrexham and Brentford, giving us five games in the next 15 days.
We have worked too hard all season to maintain a challenge to let it all fall by the wayside now.
It will take hard work, a fair degree of luck, better decisions from referees than we experienced on Saturday and the character of winners.