A
poor second half display from the Daggers proved costly as Northwich came from a
goal down to take a share of the spoils at a sun-drenched Victoria Road this
afternoon.
With Sky Sports televising the match live, it was a great opportunity to show
the viewing public what the team is capable of as well as to strengthen their
position at the top of the table. The early play suggested that it would
be a good match.
The first opportunity fell to Blundell of Northwich who put the ball in the
net only to have the goal ruled-out through offside although the TV footage
suggests that the goal should have stood. Following this let-off, the
Daggers seemed to grow in confidence and certainly gained more of the
play. Mark Janney seemed to be causing the Vics' defence untold problems
down the right and he put in an excellent cross to Mark Stein.
Unfortunately, his powerful diving header whistled over the crossbar (above).
Charlery
squandered a great chance when he beat a defender (right), rounded keeper and
then appeared to stumble as he put the ball wide from a tight angle.
Soon after, Garvey hit what looked like an unstoppable shot, but Tony Roberts
pulled off an incredible double save. Time and time again, the Daggers
made inroads into the Northwich defence, but seemed unable to find the killer
ball Good work from Goodwin was ruined by a woeful final ball and a
great lay-off in the box from Janney was wasted by a poor cross from Broom.
However,
the breakthrough eventually came in the 20th minute when Janney was upended on
the edge of the box. The referee played an excellent advantage and Mark
Stein got the ball and blasted it past Paul Gibson in the Vics' goal.
A dubious offside decision proved to be irrelevant when Charlery headed
against the bar but the controversy of the match came when Gary Talbot pulled
down Paul Terry when he was certainly the last man and the referee somehow saw
fit to only caution the defender when a red card seemed to be the obvious
decision.
At 1-0 at half-time and with the Daggers having had the majority of the play,
a home win seemed to be the most likely outcome. However, it wasn't to be
- the Daggers seemed not to be interested and created very few chances. At
the other end, the defence seemed out-of-sorts and allowed Northwich to have a
free run on goal on a number of occasions.
Seven minutes into the second half, Blundell put the ball into the net for a
second time. This time, however, the offside flag was not there to save
the Daggers and Northwich were back on level terms.
More
chances came and went for both sides. Paul Terry (right) yet again showed
his inability to shoot, putting the ball past the far post when it would surely
have been easier to have scored. Northwich saw two shots from just inside
the area fly over the bar before Blundell somehow put Quinn's cross over the bar
from close range.
All told, it was a very poor second-half performance from the Daggers and the
use of the long-ball tactics didn't help.
With Boston snatching a late winner against Stevenage this afternoon at
Broadhall Way, the Daggers' lead in the Conference is cut to one point, albeit
with a game in hand.
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