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I wonder if the club had any plans for a potential combination of Jake’s testimonial and the beer festival over that weekend? 
 

After watching the highlights Dinanga does deserve a good bit of credit for his (not insignificant) role in the second goal before he tapped it in. A very good give and go and he managed to get himself into a dangerous position after that. Dare I say it was a proper centre forward's goal. Fair play.

The stewarding was all wrong tonight. When you have women having their drinks flasks taken off them at the turnstile but you let kids actually open the gate to get onto the pitch and do nothing about it as I witnessed tonight then something is amiss. 

The stewards need to be using common sense and understand the nature of the football club and non league. I know it’s not that significant but something like having your thermos taken from you before the game could easily put you off coming again and as for the pitch invasion I understand you can’t stop everyone but the young kid that started it was the same one that jumped over the barrier when we scored the equaliser. There were stewards everywhere and if I could see it so could they. Then to not do a thing when kids began pouring onto the Pitch was ridiculous considering the amount of stewards we had there. Worse when you consider gates were being opened so they could get on more easily. What are they there for if they can’t even position themselves correctly at gates and other access points?

All a bit embarrassing frankly.

Initially, I was frustrated after the end of the game yesterday but I disagree that Phil got it wrong. We played very well for the majority of the game and more than matched Halifax. Bear in mind that Halifax have won 7 of their last 8 Home matches before yesterday and we came and almost secured 3 points.

The second goal we conceded was atypical of a team that had just scored and let their guard down. We made the changes, perhaps a little bit too late, when we were under the cosh but the direction of the game did change. It was mostly Halifax up until their goal on 69 minutes (we made changes on 75) then scored 7-8 minutes later after a lot of pressure.

A lack of concentration let us down for the equaliser and we would've won it had it not been for the madness of the last minute. I don't think Parkinson got it wrong, I think a few small mistakes cost us, including a lack of concentration which you will get with a team so young.

As for Dinanga, what he did was mindless, but I think he played a role in changing the flow of the game when he came on. He's so close to being a very capable player it's incredibly frustrating. He helped stretch the play with his energy and got himself into all the correct positions when we were getting forward but lacks the conviction at the last second. It's almost like he's a striker but isn't there to score. That doesn't make the last second any less agonising, however.

Colclough was fantastic and it's a joy to watch him play, Conn Clarke superb also and it's incredible to see how much Toby Mullarkey is turning into a very good all round footballer. He seems just as assured going forward as he does defending.

We're playing some brilliant football at the moment, our record is getting better and better and Phil and Neil are improving us yet again. I don't quite understand the backlash after this game. A frustrating manner in which we got the result but a very good draw all the same and an excellent 6 points over Christmas which I'm sure we'd have all gladly taken.

On to Bromley

While all of those strikers were certainly capable of some dreadful misses (Tom Peers at Blyth is unforgettable) I don't recall any of them actually putting a ball out specifically for a throw in from as close as Dire-nanga was last night.

That's not what happened with that chance. The ball was fired at pace from Colclough across the goal. Dinanga lunged for it but only managed to get part of his foot on the ball in time before it spun out for a throw. He wasn't there in time but there were worse misses last night than that

Fully behind him and Neil despite the run. We do this every season. It will turn and we'll be fine
It's a new system, new setup and new squad. It'll take time and it'll be difficult but we'll come out of it. We've improved year on year under this management team and I still think we'll continue that trend this season.

I thought it all felt a bit messy and directionless personally but I get that we’re trying new things and pushing the social media and marketing side more. I just didn’t really understand  the connection between the racing stuff and a new kit?? Ambitious idea, though so full marks for that.