From City Alerts

LEE'S VIEW on Chelmsford City   3   Truro City   2  

"It was a long, hard day!  The boys were getting up at 5 am and we travelled there and had a little stop on the way to walk around for 20 minutes, but once the game got under way we were all there and they gave it absolutely everything, and we came so close to getting something out of it.  It's a funny game - it certainly can kick you in the teeth at times, and it did on Saturday. 

"The lads played so hard, they deserved better;  they just came up short right at the death.  In the first half, Chelmsford were only causing us problems from set pieces, which we were dealing with okay, and I think Tim had just the one important save to make.  We looked quite comfortable.

"Yetsi gave us the lead with a great volley and Les made it 2-0 with another great volley on the run from a throw-in.  At half-time I warned that the next ten minutes would be vital;  Chelmsford would change things and come hard at us, which they did, and we conceded early on.  So that made it game on;  we started to defend a little bit deeper and then they got a penalty.  Dan couldn't help it;  he instinctively stuck his hand out to stop the ball going over the line, so no complaints about that decision.

"We had our backs against the wall now, but we still did ever so well to hold out for so long.  I had to go off with a groin injury.  There was no-one near me;  I just turned to run and that was it, it just went.  We ended up with Cody at right back, Ben partnering Jake in the middle and Yetsi at left back!

"I brought Bobby Hopkinson on and I was a little bit disappointed with the officials in the incident involving his shorts.  He had a pair of white shorts on which you could see under his blue shorts (away kit).  He was spoken to about this, so he rolled up the white shorts and said they were his pants - he had nothing else on underneath - but he was still told to take them off, which I thought was a bit out of order.

"I was also disappointed with the build-up to the winning goal in the last minute.  They were awarded a free-kick out wide that never was.  It was a perfectly good tackle - by Ben, I think - and the referee was right on top of it and gave nothing, but then he awarded a free-kick on the word of his assistant who was 20 or 30 yards away.

"I had a good giggle with our fans afterwards.  I told them they hadn't made enough noise.  They had in fact been brilliant - they made a tremendous amount of noise throughout.  Plus a big thank-you to the Chelmsford supporters and staff.  The way they saw us off the field at the end was just terrific, and of course we were also immensely grateful for the bucket collection they had for us.  Understandably, one or two of the boys got a bit emotional."   

TEAM NEWS for tomorrow's league match at home to Bath City, 7.45 pm:  LEE (groin) out.  DANNY CARNE and CALRON HALL, both unavailable on Saturday, expected to return.