Week 160 Winner!

Well, it was "deja vu all over again" today - the game took a very similar path to last week, with us playing pretty well, clearly superior to the opposition, 2-0 up but sweating a touch at the end. I thought it was right to start with Atieno up front and he did a similarly effective job. There was a strong wind against us in the first half, blowing in off the Irish sea, so it was difficult to get the ball down at times but I thought we passed it pretty well and patiently, even better than last week at times. For your info, RDJ, I thought Morris had a really good game. He played wide right pretty well throughout, held the ball up well, broke up a number of their breaks and put in some dangerous balls, mostly coming in onto his left. From one of these he looked up, picked his spot and hit a great shot that hit the bar with Roche well beaten. From the ensuing situation we got a corner and, as far as I could see from the length of the pitch, Ellis hooked it in very much like he did last week. Morecambe didn't threaten too much but from one attack Bobby pulled off an excellent save, turning the ball round the post with the tips of his fingers when it came past a bunch of players, heading towards the corner of the goal. We had the wind behind us in the second half. Atieno got away on the left, he was on his own but hit a good left-foot volley which brought a good save from Roche for a corner. He was later subbed for Howe, which we had all been expecting I'm sure. Howe was then involved in a nice move which saw the ball pulled back for Danny coming in but he shot over. Oastler, having a fine game, made a couple of surging runs into their box which caused problems. Danny cut into the middle and, a bit like he had done at Macc, deliberately aimed a curling shot for the bottom corner only for it to come off the post. Then a shot , from O'Kane I think, was going wide when Danny turned it in from about six yards. Again like Macc, Morecambe then seem to fade, perhaps their bad home run getting to them but they pulled one back with a good strike on 87mins. By this time they had, to the home fans displeasure subbed their right winger, who had looked quite useful, and, to my pleasure, the dangerous Ellison. There was a heart-stopping moment when a Gulls defender fell on the ball in the box when trying to get down to head clear a low cross - the home fans howled for a pen but the ref ignored it. For me any of Bobby, Oastler, Danny and Ellis could make the League 2 team of the week but the whole side worked really well together. Didn't have a pie there but brought a couple home for later ! Great talking to Cooperman - hope journey back to Reading was good !