Saturday night football saw a visit to the Kuflink Stadium for in-form Oldham to face bottom of the table Ebbsfleet United in a match that we were not only expected to win, but to win at a canter.
That expectation did not turn to reality as, despite dominating possession and territory, we didn’t create the chances that we had in the previous few games and it took the gritty and determined side of the squad to come through to take the three points.
The winner was the main bit of quality in the whole game with a nice build up freeing substitute Jes Uchegbulam, whose pace had terrified Fleet from his introduction, down the left.
James Norwood’s run to the near post made the space for the marauding Otis Khan and he neatly finished for a deserved three points.
Despite giving away a penalty, we were solid defensively overall once more with the usual suspects at the back controlling the opposition attack with relative ease throughout.
Mark Kitching scored the first for another goal in his regeneration since coming back into the starting line up and is once again showing us he is up there with the best left sided defenders in the league.
All in all, the win was the most important but there were also plenty of positives to take forward into more difficult games ahead in a less than fluent display to make it four wins in a row.
The second game of the week was truly frustrating with Shaun Hobson limping off with what seems like a serious injury in the nothing competition that is the inaugural National League Cup.
I have no issue with our entry into this effectively reserve competition if we could make it just that and only play players who need game time and match fitness such as the returning Harry Charsley who scored and showed some of his pre-injury form on his return.
However, the rule that we have to play four starters is very disappointing and puts our first XI at unnecessary risk playing in front of less than 500 in a competition fans clearly haven’t, and won’t, buy into.
Micky Mellon managed that risk as best as he could playing Khan for only 15 minutes and Charlie Raglan for a half but he cannot eliminate every risk to protect our key men.
Victory made it five in a row but at what cost, with a big game against Solihull Moors only days away.
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