We are evens to beat Taunton, which actually is bonkers good value when you consider the things we have talked about Taunton's selection issues here, compared to our situation. Lump on!

I have reinvested winnings from the lovely Chesterfield game onto us to win this one, as I expect us to win by at least 2 goals, could even get 4, as there are 5 college players in Taunton's squad, so they are not that different to the Chesterfield academy team in make up, so to get evens for this is Christmastime come early.

Formation is not working to defensive n no width

Taunton look right up for it, we don't.

Odusanya sent off

Johnson on for Wood

Fortunate to get the point in the end

Very disappointing performance today. We didnt put 3 passes together all game.Rod on it and giving directions all game but we werent on it

First half too slow and too many sideways and backwards passes in defence, and defenders passing short to midfield players, rather than clearing pressure by knocking long balls up to the strikers.

Second half much better in these areas, looking to hit the ball longer and quicker, but the sending off meant we had to go back to defensive play. But fair play to Taunton, they were really up for it.

It is good Rod will have seen the issues that have got us where we are in the table, he has now seen the best of us, and the not so good us. I sat where I could hear his instructions, for an idea of what he is all about, and they showed he saw things players should have been doing, the problem was they couldn't see them. But with more time he will get his ideas across to players. And in the scale of things, getting a point being a man down isnt that bad an outcome for Welling, though not good for me.

It all felt after the Lord mayors show today. We never got anywhere near the levels we achieved on Tuesday. If we had of got an early goal I think we would have won quite easily but the game became ragged and got away from us. Not a disaster but the momentum built in the last week has been halted some what.

Wood at LB Green in front of him was better against Hampton.
Yesterday Green LB Wood in front looked disjointed.

KOTR wrote:

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Wood at LB Green in front of him was better against Hampton.
Yesterday Green LB Wood in front looked disjointed.

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 Same eleven players, totally different formation. Maybe the changes were designed to confuse the opposition. It certainly confused me, but it's early days for the manager who is just starting to get to know what his players can and can't do.

Looking back at the context now clearer when you see the 2 managers' post match interviews, Taunton came looking for a point, to keep the 4 point gap between us, as if we'd won we'd have been just 1 point behind them, and their priority was to stop that. I was surprised at the match how they kept so many back in defence when they had the extra player, but they didnt want to take the chance of us scoring on the break, now it is clearer why they did that.

We've a bit of a track record by now of not doing so well in the next match after playing the previous match with 10 men, as that burns us out for the following match, and the effort in the Tuesday match caught up with us, particularly as Taunton were fresher as they hadnt played a midweek match.

I may have got it wrong earlier about Tristan's suspension for 3 league games, not sure, on reflection maybe 2 of his missed games would be cup matches, so he only misses 1 league game?

In the context of the sending off and the opposition's freshness advantage, what seemed a disappointing draw actually may be better than it seemed at the time. If they'd taken advantage and won, that resulting 7 point gap would have been a real drag, but 4 points gap is fine, as they may get the odd draw here and there, but it is hard to imagine them winning many more games, whereas as their manager said about us after the match, we are on the ascendency.