A POINT ON THE ROAD

Needham Market recorded a point on the road with a 2-2 draw at Stratford Town on Tuesday night.

Tom Rothery's side made one change to the trip to Halesowen, Kyle Hammond returned from suspension with Reggie Lambe starting on the bench.

Needham created a good chance early on, Kyle Hammond was latched through down the right-hand side but the keeper slid out to gather in the 2nd minute.

Joe Neal was threaded through down the left wing to round the committed keeper, though the latter got back to palm the ball away in the fifth minute.

Bradbrook however claimed an effort looping underneath his bar (8'), while Myles Cowling fired narrowly wide from distance a minute later.

Great football from Needham (14') saw the visitors work the keeper. Myles Cowling drove forward before sliding Joe Neal through just outside the area whose fierce strike was smothered by the keeper. Kyle Hammond tried his luck from the edge of the box, but his strike was blocked.

A crucial block on the line from Morphew (17') denied a shot at close range on the right-hand side, though the Bards did break the deadlock on 20 minutes.

After appeals for a foul on Cowling were waved away, as he looked to break on the counter, the ball was crossed in finding a man at point blank range on the left-hand side to fire home off the underside of the crossbar.

Stratford (25') fired over after being fed to turn on the edge of the box, in an arguably even first half.

Jake Dye (31') raced free down the right wing, whipping a dangerous low ball across the face of goal - just evading Neal, though soon after the striker latched onto a ball over the top on the right-hand side, lobbing the onrushing keeper though a defender was first to head the dropping ball away. Cowling picked up possession in the box, teeing up Ingram whose strike from distance was blocked.

Needham however equalised on 39 minutes, Kyle Hammond's left wing corner into a troublesome area was headed as far as Dan Morphew at the far post who towered high to head the ball down then lash home excellently into the top far corner.

Ryan Miles (42') reached the left-hand byline whose exquisite cross just evaded Cowling inside the six yard box.

Buoyed by the goal, the Marketmen took the lead (43'), a ball over the top found Ingram driving through whose sublime side-footed lob beat the onrushing keeper, dipping into the net.

Just before the break, Needham went close to a third (45'+3'), neat passing play saw Ryan Miles beat his man on the left wing to find Ingram free on the left-hand side whose first time strike went wide.

Stratford (54') smashed wide of the top right-hand corner from distance, prior to Neal (57') firing wide of the far post from distance.

The striker (59') raced down the right-hand side to cut it back to Smith whose close range strike was blocked, though Stratford equalised seconds later.

The hosts broke down the other end onto the left-hand side to squeeze home off the inside of the far post.

Reggie Lambe replaced Miles, while Neal (65') whipped in a delightful left wing cross finding Ingram whose header back across goal went just wide.

Dan Morphew (68') leapt like a salmon at close range to meet Hammond's right wing corner whose header at the top far corner was expertly beaten away by the keeper.

Keiran Morphew picked out Smith with an excellent cross-field ball out on the left wing whose dangerous cross into the danger area on 71 minutes was deflected to Neal but the ball bounced off him and just wide.

Chambers replaced the forward, before another excellent stop thwarted the Suffolk side (73'), Chambers was released forward through the Bards' half onto the left-hand byline whose cutback finds Cowling whose close range strike is superbly beaten away by the flying keeper.

Tommy Smith (75') smartly hit a low free-kick on the right-hand edge of the box low towards the bottom far corner which Eve dived across to hold onto.

Needham remained on top, though James Bradbrook (81') got down well to swat a low shot across goal behind, at his right-hand side.

Chambers (84') saw a strike from range blocked, albeit Nsofor was adjudged offside a minute later as he raced through one on one only to see his low shot across goal denied.

Cowling saw a ferocious strike towards the top right-hand corner saved on 86 minutes, however Bradbrook was alert to react and save low with his legs in the 91st minute.

Needham host Redditch United on Saturday (3pm).

Assistant Manager Nathan Munson said, “Tom and I just said to the boys in there that when you come away to Stratford, long journey, Tuesday night, you know, we've had to take half days from work, travel halfway across the country, and then to get a point, then I think you're always reasonably happy with that, but I don't know, I felt like we could have got more out of the game. If you look at the game chances, then we'll be way, way ahead on that. I think they've had sort of three or four moments. We've had probably triple that. We just haven't been able to put it away and get the three points, which I probably think our play deserved.

“I think we started the game, first 10 minutes pretty well. They scored a bit from nothing, really set-piece. Didn't defend it well and scored it off the bar, and then I think for probably 10 minutes, we just weren't really precise enough in what we were doing. After that, we got the goal ourselves from the set-piece, back post, and Dan finished really strongly like we know he can and can be a threat at set-pieces. When we got back level, we had a really good spell for 15 minutes. We scored again, great ball from Ryan, who I thought played well, and Luke with a really cold finish. We looked really quite dominant for the remainder of the first half.”

“Football's a funny old game. I think for the first half at Halesowen, probably the best we played in any of the four halves in the two games and we didn't get any goals out of it.

Whereas today, it was quite end-to-end. It was quite an open match. We back ourselves in that sort of game to go and create chances. So, we did it. We just ended up not being able to quite get over the line. I mean, you look at their equaliser. I mean, we've gone and played some lovely football and ended up putting the ball in the box for Tommy, the full-back. The keeper closed him down and made a really good save. Then you're sort of thinking about being 3-1 up and 30 seconds later, you're 2-2. So, that was quite a bit of a pill to swallow. Even after that, we had a number of good chances. I thought he would have got it (Man Of The Match). I mean, you look at the save he made from Mylo and several others. He would have been a strong candidate, certainly, for his performance.

Asked if we could be more clinical, Munson replied, “I think if you look at the stats alone, I mean, the last few games we've scored, well, we've got a couple today. We didn't score at Halesowen, but then we got four before that. I think, you know, a couple of games before that, we got four. We got three against Stourbridge. I mean, if we're clinical, we'd be getting sort of six a game.

That doesn't really happen like that. We are creating a lot of chances. So that's really positive.

You know, one of the oldest sayings in football, and one I've heard many times, is you've got to start worrying if you're not creating, well, we're not in that position at all. We're creating so many chances every match, which is really positive. You know that's going to change, and actually, if you get a result Saturday at home, we're in the playoffs. I don't think anybody would say that we're hitting top gear yet. So, you know, we're on the fringes of things. We're quite well placed.

I think there's more to come from this squad.

“We're frustrated. I mean, I've no doubt that we're all frustrated in there. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be positive, because what we've got is a really close-knit group of lads that have come away on a Tuesday night and got a point at somewhere that's really tough to get a point at. So, you know, there's not been a lack of commitment, a lack of effort. Far from it. They've all been absolutely committed to the cause tonight. We put in a really, really good performance.

We just haven't quite been able to get the three points. So, we're going to be frustrated, but we're positive because we see the performance tonight and we're positive about what we can get Saturday. Like I say, if we were to pick up the three points, bearing in mind we're still only just into November, we've got five months of the season left, if we are to get a result on Saturday, then we're in the playoffs. So, I think there's a lot to be quite excited around at the club.

Speaking about Saturday's home game with Redditch, he added, “good side, well-coached, well-managed. They've got some really strong players. We've played them many times.

They're always tough matches. Saturday will be exactly the same. It'll be a really tough match.

We just hope we can get down and get the ball moving and create some chances again, and if we do, then I think we've got a really good chance.”

MOTM Tommy Smith said, “Definitely should have come away with three points, but definitely should have finished all the chances we have. A point away from home on a Tuesday night is never a bad one, but in the context of the game, definitely deserved one.

“Good fight in the first half to come back, were truly on top, all game to be fair.

It's just killing  us a lot at the moment, it's just finishing games off and finishing teams off. I had a couple of chances tonight, I think there's a lot of chances elsewhere as well. The performances are still really positive and at least we're creating them chances.

“I thought their keeper played really well, obviously made really good saves. I mean we tested them a lot and you know, it seems to be the case. Teams have an individual worldie performances against us at the moment and we can't seem to shake that off.

“I feel like we haven't been helping ourselves a lot but I do think that will change. It can't happen all season but the main thing is that the performances are really good, really positive. It's going to change at some point, the luck's going to fall our way, we're going to start winning a lot of games. They're similar performances (to Halesowen away), the performances are really good. It's definitely a positive from Saturday obviously, we lost the game Saturday so I thought we were in control of the game all the way through tonight, barring the first maybe 10-15 minutes. I think Saturday's second half was a little bit more frustrating, I thought tonight was more or less there was only one team going on to win the game. So from that point of view it's a positive but we haven't done the hardest thing which is score goals. We've had two tough away performances or two tough away games Saturday and Tuesday. It's nice to get back at home and the three points isn't a match so I don't care how we do it. The points are great but I just want three points at the end of it.”