www.altyfans.co.uk

A lot of excellent posts on here, and I can't disagree with any of them.

One of the characteristics of Phil Parkinson's and Neil Tolson's tenure is that they seem to learn as they go on. That's not a bad thing - quite the contrary - and while we may occasionally take a step back, that is usually followed by three steps forward, so I can't see us following Boreham Wood or Dartford who were in the playoffs in 2023 then relegated in 2o24.

Phil and Neil will now have more idea of wbat is needed, or what nous if you like, to achieve success in the playoffs, and I am sure that will be addressed.

It has been a great season and we have been competing at the highest level we have for nearly thirty years.

How did he sneak back in..?!

Weird bounce. We deal with that we are golden.

Solihull at Wembley should be our dream outcome.

Let's get tomorrow done.

Correct. Alas, we didn't.

Average crowd of 2295 for the season if football web pages have included today.Best for 50 plus years ?

https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/national-league/attendances

I calculate that the average attendance for our 23 league games this season is 2,339.

Last season it was 2,114.

If Bromley fail to collect at least a point from this evening's visit to Oxford City, there is still a chance that Gateshead could finish third on goal difference.

Gateshead host Bromley on Saturday.

Bring back Max Haygarth.....

Meanwhile, Kidderminster were abysmal. Antediluvian football that deserves relegation.

Some definite echoes of last Tuesday evening's game against Wealdstone.

A somewhat dodgy opening by us, the opposition are in the ascendancy and duly score, only for us to then puncture their optimism by responding with a swift equaliser.

Then a much improved second half, during which Ross is largely untroubled and we score some quality goals.

Lovely play by Linney in the build-up to our second goal. I sincerely hope that his substitution was merely precautionary and he'll be raring to go again on Monday.

CCC really is a delight to watch. Plus it was a real bonus to have the cushion of a two-goal lead which meant that we could afford to withdraw him after 74 minutes.

Some beneficial results elsewhere, too. Good Friday, indeed.

Aside from the opening 30 minutes or so, I thought that Gateshead were the better team and ultimately deserved their victory.

We really struggled to get going in that second half and our defending was well below its customary standard this season. Two uncharacteristically poor headers by Jake Cooper which teed up their second and third goals.

Superb strike from Dan Mooney, but their debutant in goal largely had very little to do. The introduction of Linney for Kosylo came far too late, to my mind.

What troubles me is that Gateshead exhibited far more facets to their game overall. Yes, we are fully aware that they can play it out from the back and always have good technical players in midfield who can pass the ball around nicely, but they were also not afraid to be more direct (as demonstrated by their first goal).

We rarely take the opportunity to put a speculative cross into the opposition penalty area, after which we might profit from a defensive error. I can't help but feel that on too many occasions we overelaborate and appear to be on a mystical quest to score the 'perfect' goal.

Ironically, Alex Newby's goal did result from an enforced 'route one' punt from Ethan Ross, which their defender duly made a complete hash of.

I thought that the booing of Dinanga when he was being substituted was rather uncalled for. If he scores the winning goal for Gateshead in their forthcoming FA Trophy Semi-Final against Macc, I will consider crowdfunding for a statue of him to be erected on George Street.

Rewatching the totally unprofessional manner in which we conceded that late goal has certainly not improved my mood!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3SAm9xJDkw