Woods Case For The defence

The one undeniable shining light in Tuesday`s home game with York City has to be the back 5. Two consecutive clean sheets so far suggests the woeful defending of last season has been addressed, with Woods due the credit.

The only missing ingredients necessary to create a Blundell Park Bastille will be sufficient goals, to turn draws into wins and garner three precious points each week. For make no bones about it with Wood, Garner and Samuels on the bench and Atkinson in the stands there is certainly a strong case for the defence.

Keeper Kenny Arthur was commanding, coming out to nip things in the bud when called upon during the course of the game. When he was required as a shot stopper he was dependable, and in the case of Gash`s glorious goal bound effort he showed the reflexes of a cat.

Kempson was again superb marshalling Brodie to the point of petulance on the youngster`s part. His delivery up field suggests he will also feature in the assists charts on a few occasions this season too. He bravely throws himself in front of everything and has a firm but fair style of tackling timed to perfection twice at the Pontoon End on Tuesday.

Watt had another commanding game showing his presence in either box. He had little option but to take a second yellow for the team, although if it had happened to us we would have been screaming for red, perhaps even blood. Very composed and brings a ball under control superbly for a big awkward lad and that positional sense, plus the card incident, has so far saved any questions over our lack of pace centrally.

Ridley again looked solid, linked well and gained the ref`s sympathy as he always does. Certainly a speed merchant will give him a tough game but as Scunthorpe and Lincoln fans will testify, he rarely lets his side down and knows every trick in the book. As Italian premier Berlusconi recently said ‘Hey I`m-a no saint.`

Bore has yet to get in gear offensively although he did not let us down at right back against a formidable York forward line. He did start to look more like his old self late in the game wit6h a thirty-five yarder that deserved more as it sped two foot wide.

So, two games, two clean sheets and two yellows thus far. The case for the defence is looking a strong one although Hayes and Darlington will pose a few differing questions over the next five days. The games certainly come thick and fast over the first few weeks of the season, although the strength in depth looks reassuring.


Kenny Arthur
Aps 2 – – Saves 7 – Clean Sheets 2 – Yellows 0 – Mins on Pitch 180

2 Peter Bore
Aps 2 – Goals 0 Shots 1 Shots on 0, Fouls 3 Fouled 2 – Yellows 0 – Mins on Pitch 180

3 Lee Ridley
Aps 2 – Goals 0 – Fouls 2 Fouled 4 – Yellows 0 – Mins on Pitch 180

16 Steven Watt
Aps 2 – Fouls 4 Fouled 1 – Goals 0 – Shots 2 Shots on 1 – Yellows 2 – Mins on Pitch 180

5 Darran Kempson
Aps 2 – Fouls 0 Fouled 3 – Goals 0 – Shots on 0 Shots off 1 – Yellows 0 – Mins on Pitch 180