Stanley Match Report

[Glenn]

A big Thank You to Scotty for the following

And so it begins again.

It was still very, very hot at kick-off and the pitch was hard, bumpy and sandy, so it was never going to be a classic. Both teams were only playing at half pace and there was hardly a meaningful tackle in the game (with one or two exceptions), so it's difficult to make judgements on players. In addition I thought Accrington were very poor and offered very little up front.

After saying that though Gallagher did impress in the first half. He started wide on the right but kept switching with Bentley in the centre and drove forward at every opportunity. It was his shot that was parried by the keeper for Roberts to finish. Roberts looked dangerous as well and it was a shame when he went off injured after about 35 minutes - hope it's not serious. However, there were no signs of Roberts and Jeffers developing a partnership during that time but it's obviously very early days.

Agathe played at right-back and looked good going forward, but he also looked very shaky defensively. He did brilliantly for the second goal though, beating at least two players before getting to the by-line and delivering a peach of a cross that Jeffers couldn't fail to convert. It was really the only outstanding moment that Jeffers had in the game (he was subbed shortly after his goal) but I guess he's that type of player, doesn't seem to do much but gets on the end of things and, hopefully, scores goals.

The other plus was Derbyshire, who scored one (a real poachers effort) and could have had a couple more. He still looks very small, but there's something about the lad - he's got a touch of class when he gets in front of goal. Our other debutant Brown had a solid second half in goal and made at least one decent save when called upon.

The only real negatives were Friedel's kicking, which was awful (although the pitch was bobbly), Robert's injury, Bentley and Pedersen's poor performance, and seeing that Kuqi's first touch hasn't improved over the summer. Also both Reid and Nelsen were missing, presumably injured.

All in all it was a decent workout against poor opposition. We controlled most of the game and deserved the win, but we never really got out of first gear. Nice that 3 of our strikers got goals though, can't hurt their confidence going into the bigger challenges ahead.

Both pre and post match discussion for the game can be found here.

SAS' pictures from the game can be found here