Report by Julian Tyley
Marc Ellison was suspended for the game at Northallerton but with Liam McIvor away, he was in charge of the team and obviously saw things differently when watching from the sidelines compared to when on the pitch.
Giving an honest assessment of the performance he commented “It was the story of the season I think. We can’t carry on just giving goals away. We’re giving them away but we never ever get chances like that given to us. We’re giving teams two, sometimes three, even four a game.
“With no disrespect to them (Northallerton), they’re down at the bottom end of the table. A couple of weeks ago we were trying to get in the play offs but tonight that difference between the sides wasn’t there; there was no difference at all.
“Obviously I’ve seen it from a different side tonight. I’ve been sat there in the dressing room being talked to like I’ve spoken to them tonight and I see the frustrations that Liam’s seen and Nicky will have seen before. I’ve seen it from the management side tonight.
“It’s nowhere near good enough and not what we as experienced players expect from the rest of the group. It’s not just a one off it’s been like this all season. We’ll have 1 or 2 really good games, like the Guisborough game, the Heaton Stan games then we’ll have 2 or 3 weeks where it’s come down to a mentality thing. I know we’ve got a really young squad in there. There’s only myself, Carty (Andrew Cartwright), Michael Hall, Scotty Lowery maybe, with a bit of experience. They’ve got to learn quickly. There’s some really, really good players who’ll probably go and player higher than the Northern League but if they don’t switch on, they’re not going to go anywhere. It’s all very well playing nice football but you have to have that ‘nasty side’ where you want to win.
“There was a little spell where we huffed and puffed for 5 to 10 minutes but that was about it. They didn’t really threaten much, I don’t think Dan Lister’s had more than one shot to save but we’ve given them two easy chances.
“We lack a bit of a goal threat at times. We don’t really play with a number 9 but then we probably put more crosses into the box than any team in the league and there’s no one there to finish them off! We had spells in the game where we played some really nice stuff and it looks good but there’s something not quite right and its really frustrating, the story of the season.
“The positives.. Cam Brewis was really good, he’s been out injured, he’s come back and I thought he played really, really well. I thought young Evan Wilkinson when he came on was good. Young Harry Law did alright. But for most it was one of those end of season ‘do we really want to be here’ type of games and I’ve just said in there it’s an excuse but if you want to go on and win something there’s no room for excuses. These are the types of games you should be coming and winning.
“At this stage of the season it’s a good chance to give lads minutes, those who haven’t started regularly; like Harry, Eva and Juan Valbuena, who looked alright when he came on for his first game.”
One of the players missing from the squad at Northallerton was Paddy Almond. “Paddy’s been brilliant, really good. Unfortunately he couldn’t get here today but that’s what your squad’s there for at the end of the day.
“We’re expecting a big crowd Saturday with it being the last home game of the season so I’ve said to then in there West Auckland will be up for it because they’re going for the play offs. We can’t turn up the way we have been doing. We need to be on it Saturday and get a positive result. Players will be back and we should have a full squad Saturday.”
