Jason's Jottings (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Basingstoke Town manager Jason Bristow's weekly column

8:00am Saturday 9th March 2013 in Sport

ANOTHER eventful week has passed, with two very different performances on Saturday and Tuesday.

On Saturday we played Billericay at home and our intentions were to attack in numbers by moving the ball quickly and committing men forward.

With a midfield three of Wes Daly, Shaun McAuley and Simon Dunn supporting the front three we had plenty of flair on the pitch to do this – but unfortunately the game didn’t work out that way.

The ball spent most of the afternoon in the air and we failed to get to grips with the very direct style of the opponents. Every throw in our half took 30 seconds because they were sending the defenders forward and it really disrupted the flow of the game.

We struggled to deal with the long throw throughout the first-half but coped a bit better second-half and were very disappointed to have not played to our potential and only picked up a point.

On Tuesday, against a side second in the league and unbeaten at home all season, we put in our best defensive performance of the season and restricted Salisbury to shots from distance and half-chances.

The work rate of the entire team was first class and we got our rewards with a hard-fought victory.

It is very difficult to single anyone out from the performance but a special mention has to go to David Ray. He has been out of action for over six months and put in a commanding performance at centre-half, using his experience to marshall the defence with Rob Rice.

It is important we take that sort of commitment and performance into Saturday’s game, another tough one against top of the table Welling.

With only 10 games left we must push on and finish the season strongly. We have a lot of tough games, with nearly all the sides chasing promotion and the play-offs to play.

We will have a big say in the final positions at the top of the table but it is our own position we are concerned about.

We want to perform well and get the results that the faith and commitment of the supporters deserve.

Regards,

Jason