Coming up against 3rd place Coton Green was always going to be a tough task, we changed formation and personnel to try and be more organised defensively and try to frustrate Coton, went for two more defensive minded wing backs to protect our back 3 more, wanted to be more competitive in the middle of the park and legs running in behind Luke Sidaway up top.

Conceding after 7 minutes was a big blow as we were working out Cotons Style, after the goal we quickly found our feet and started to grow into the game, we were comfortable in possession and organised out of possession, we had chances that should of been put away first half and we finally got the equaliser from a Josh Godwin long throw headed in by Harry Higginson.

The pressure and chances kept coming but the half ended 1-1, we knew Coton were starting to get a bit frustrated and would come out strong in the second half but it was about us just being organised and robust for 15 minutes, we got dealt a hammer blow with the ref giving a penalty to Coton Green but only the ref can tell us what for on that one as he was the only one in the ground that thought it was.

After Coton Green converting the penalty to go 2-1 up it was then when for 10 minutes we had total head loss with the penalty decision which made us switch off and Coton grabbed a 3rd shortly after.

We began to settle back down and again enjoyed spells of the ball in the opposition half with creating chances, I believe without the head loss and conceding the 3rd we could of made last 20 minutes interesting if we had kept the game at 2-1.

In all though for 75-80 minutes we looked like a team who wanted to play football, we had a togetherness and a understanding, to start the game with Jyon Ebo, Fletcher Marsh and Charlie Oliver 3 players from Gornal’s U18’s was rewards for how well they have been doing and certainly didn’t look out of place.

Was good to speak to some of the fans after the game and hear the thoughts and positive comments on seeing what we are trying to achieve at Gornal.

With fixtures against top teams in the league why not just give us another next week to look forward to, we are against high flying Cradley Town next Saturday but it’s another great test for us that I’m looking forward to.