Has the heart rate dropped to normal yet? Gloverscast Ben‘s just about has… just.
Here’s how he saw it – from the comfort of his own home, on National League TV
That first half was positively delightful: Oh, I could watch that first half over and over again. There was pace, power, control, flying wingers, defenders heading stuff away.
We saw neat link up play, one-twos falling perfectly, we got some Frank Nouble specials – where he just bulldozes through the midfield, into the attack and does something nice. Pearson looked lively – and got booted about a lot, Worthington ran himself into the ground and Ollie Wright did what he had to do with minimal fuss.
We saw Whittle and Smith getting forward – the latter getting into the mixer to bag from close range. Give me more of that.
It was arguably the most complete 45 minutes of football we have seen since we took Taunton Town apart on Boxing Day. It had everything.
Brett McGavin Tuesdays: We have a real player on our hands here, don’t we?
I made a call on the podcast that McGavin might be someone who can win Glovies this year – and games of football, I spose – but for periods of the first half, the ball stuck to his foot, every pass was calm and concise and he’s got a turn and trick up his sleeve to get out of trouble.
He ran the show, orchestrated the midfield allowing others to play to their strengths and there’s no-one else in the team you’d want the ball to fall to 20 yards out, is there?
I heard “Brett McGavin Saturday Lunchtimes in Gateshead” are also a thing, which is handy.
Josh Sims – Crikey I’m excited: In just a short amount of time, we’ve seen enough about Josh Sims to realise there’s a player in there that’s probably a bit too good for the National League.
We have a fitness management issue, he’s clearly not up to full fitness and two games in 48 hours this weekend might not be doable, but as he builds up a full level of fitness, so long as we’re careful, we’re going to get more out of him that maybe we quite know at this point.
His ability to link up, almost telepathically with Frank Nouble and Alex Whittle down the left hand side was very nice to watch in that first half.
He’s got a low centre of gravity, he thinks fowards – he wants to get up towards the opposition box, which sounds obvious, but isn’t always the case. He’s direct, he can change direction quickly. He only lacked a finish on Tuesday night to seal a pretty impressive 45 minutes.
He came close with a curled effort into the far corner after cutting in off the byline, but he definitely offers something different to Dylan Morgan, Jordan Young and Sam Pearson.
He’s a player who’ll get Huish Park off their seats, he’ll raise the noise a decibel or two.
If we manage him, especially early on, if we can get that final ball, or final finish from him… we’ve got another one we’ll be able to stand on a Michael Smith pedestal.
What the heck happened after half-time?: Let’s get into it, shall we? Minutes 46-67 were, absolutely bonkers, weren’t they?
Firstly, at half time, the sub of Sims for Cooper confused me. We knew Josh Sims was only slated for 45 minutes, that’s fine – but to completely change shape, to bring on a defensive midfielder and change the set up when things were going so well in the first half seemed an odd call.
It felt like a “more of the same lads” type team talk and a Young or Greenslade swap for Sims. Same position, same link ups, same outcome… no?
Ebbsfleet were always going to throw the kitchen sink at it, but Wannell and Williams hadn’t really had much to do and with Araoye coming on down the left, dealing with a few lumps into the box wouldn’t have been an issue.
The team got deeper, the pressure mounted for a good ten minutes, we couldn’t get out of our half, because we invited them in.
Then, a keeper error. Look, I’m a card carrying member of the GK Union (the Wednesday night 5-a-side branch, we’re not invited to the End of Season do… anyway, I digress) and I don’t quite know how Ollie Wright gets into bother when trying to deal with a cross, which should either have been claimed or dealt with in distance. In the end, neither happened and you end up with a 7-foot ‘keeper sprawled across the floor and the ball in the back of the empty net.
Then, it’s game on – and you leave yourself open to a pot shot from distance, a moment of magic. Blink and you’ve gone from 2-0 up and cruising to Desmond 2-2 and wondering what on earth was going on.
I hope we take stock of that moment and realise that this isn’t the National League South, teams are going to be good enough to get back into games… some of them are good enough to not let us win them either.
I’m chuffed for Harvey Greenslade: I really liked the addition of Greenslade this summer, we’ve said on the podcast that it was a signing that just ticked so many boxes and he’s made a real impact.
He looked lively in pre-season, he missed a couple of tough chances against Hartlepool and maybe didn’t quite get going to his absolute best against Braintree.
But do you ever get the feeling this signing is just going to work out? That the player will be popular with fans, will run for the name on the front of the shirt and we’ll remember the name on the back?
It’s early days, of course it is, but I’m quietly (and now quite loudly) excited. Maybe it’s an impact role off the bench for now – he’s only 20 remember – maybe it’s doing a job as a 9 sometimes, as a 10, wider on occasions. But he’s giving more established attackers a headache now and wants their place in the side. 81st minute winners are a GREAT way to do it. I like it.