Forest Green 1-2 York City (10/09/05)

[Match Reports]

__________________ Forest Green 1-2 York City
_____________________-_Teixeira 89_______-Dudgeon 17
______________________________i_______Convery 68
______________________O_____Attendance: 889
________________________-__


City recorded their second away triumph of the season, against a hard working but limited Forest Green Rovers side who haven't won since their opening day success against Cambridge United. It was probably the Minstermen's poorest performance of the season so far, but despite this the away side always looked comfortable, except a final burst of pressure from FGR.

Both teams took their time to get going on a pitch that seemed slippy and a little bobbly for this stage in the season. FGR won plenty of corners in the early stages but did little to concern City with them, with Dudgeon and McGurk both solid and winning everything in the air.

The game came to life after around ten minutes with City beginning to get the ball down and play some nice football. However, they almost took the lead in a completely weird way - porter's long punt upfield caught home keeper Clarke off his guard and bounced over his head, with the FGR keeper having to fling out a desperate hand to claw it onto the bar.

City then really should have taken the lead with Donaldson providing a guilt edged chance for O'Neill to score for the first time since his debutant hat trick at Southport. O'Neill was put clean through with just the keeper to beat, but his attempted chip was saved.

Five or so minutes after, City did get the lead when they won a corner, and Dunning's flagkick caused all sorts of trouble for FGR who couldn't clear. The loose ball was sent with great power into the net by City's James Dudgeon from 2 yards out for his 2nd goal in 2 starts.

Following that, City contained FGR, who could barely muster an effort on target. The quality of football from both teams became poor for the half an hour closest to the half time period as City seemed to resort to FGR's long ball tactics too often.

Then, in the second half, in the space of a minute the game went completely in City's favour. From a set piece, Wanless won a looping header which was saved with a spectacular reflex reaction from porter. The resulting corner was poor and City counter attacked. Panther ran from midfield before releasing O'Neill in the centre. O'Neill saw Convery overlapping slightly to the right of goal and set him up neatly with a great ball. The ex - Darlo midfielder then placed the ball into the bottom left hand side of the net to seal the points for the Reds.

It could have been a more comprehensive victory too, Panther running strongly from midfield and sending in a belter from 30 yards that was saved excellently by Clarke.

But City could easily have given FGR an undeserved draw when the home side finally got a few efforts on goal. Their goal was scored a minute from time with Price's slip allowing FGR's all time Conference record goalscorer Meechan to send a great low ball across goal for an easy tap in from the Portuguese sub Teixiera.

FGR won yet more corners, but their delivery was a bit suspect - in all, they won 15 corners but they were all dealt with very well. A couple of headers came reasonably close but City were worth the 3 points.

Player Ratings

Chris PORTER 7:
One good save when called upon from FGR's midfielder Wanless. Kicking pretty good as well.

Jamie PRICE 6:
Slipped for the FGR goal. Distribution was a bit poor too but otherwise fairly good defensively.

David MERRIS 6.5:
Uncomplicated, solid return to the side from last season's Player of the Year.

David McGURK 9 MotM:
Man of the Match - Barely let anything past him, a couple of fine tackles too.

James DUDGEON 8.5:
Missed one header all afternoon against a tall opponent and with FGR using long ball tactics. Excellent effort. 2 goals in 2 starts is good going for a defender too.

Mark CONVERY 6.5: (Sub'ed 75mins)
Well placed goal, otherwise quiet in a game where midfields were too often ignored.

Emmanuel PANTHER 7:
Some strong tackling in the midfield and the odd surging run forward.

Darren DUNNING 6.5: (Sub'ed 82mins)
Did his job and battled hard.

Andy BISHOP 5.5: (Sub'ed 69mins)
Pretty poor to be honest. Rarely stayed onside, seemed lazy and not at his best.

Joe O’NEILL 6:
Battled well upfront but really should have scored again.

Clayton DONALDSON 6.5:
The FGR full back tracked him pretty well and didn't really allow him to get into the game much. Still involved with all of City's best attacking play.

Substitutes

Ryan MALLON 6.5: (On 69mins)
Plenty of effort but just seems not to have that ability you need to take on the full backs.

Byron WEBSTER 6: (On 75mins)
As Yalcin. Definitely should work on strength in the midfield as he was occasionally brushed aside by the FGR midfield.

Levent YALCIN 6: (On 82mins)
Not really used to his best by City who seemed content to play long ball football for the last 20 minutes.

Un-Used: Afandjyev, Staley

Referee

C SARGINSON 8: (Staffordshire)
Ran the game well and didn't make controiversial or questionable decisions, unlike some of the refs City have encountered away from home this season.

Overall Verdict & City's Stats

City can be pleased with a result that takes them to third in the table. It wasn't their best so far this season, but the performances of the two centre backs especially give a lot of encouragement. Otherwise, the only real issue is they need to score a few more of their chances to make routine wins comfortable and also get out of the habit of conceding sloppy goals in the last few minutes. City will have to play far better than this to beat the Conference's leading teams, but the ability is there although City's flair players had quiet games for a change. City next have 2 home games, followed by away games including against the league's bottom club Aldershot - 4 very winable fixtures, in which they will need to get a reasonable tally of points if they want to keep up with the Conference leaders Exeter, who visit Bootham Crescent in 3 weeks. The fine start to the season has provided a lot of optimism, hopefully the team will carry on performing well in these next games.

Booked : Price, Merris
Stats : To Come...

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