SOUTHERN PREMIER SAT 26 JANUARY 2006 3PM KO

Cirencester Town 2 Bedford Town 1

We all know every game is important. But it was only after this match ended that it dawned on me how important this one was. We've watched the team pull themselves up over the last couple of months. And in the last month watched them begin to enjoy their football.

But today, at least for me, their sheer, plain cussedness was there for all to see. We could easily have lost this one because Bedford were no mugs. And in James Hatch, Andy Phillips and Derwayne Stupple they had players who gave us a real going over.

Quick and slick with their passing, and accurate as they kept the ball on the deck in a strong cross field wind, their probing had Moly and Cocker working hard to keep them at bay. By and large they did, with Paul Cochlin outstanding both in moving first to the ball and then in making sure his distribution gave Ciren an attacking position up the field.

Matt Shaxton looked to have won a penalty when he cut in from the right off an incisive pass into the gap from Chrissie Collins. With wily veteran Eddie Lawley in front of him, he diddled him on the outside and when the half tackle came in was first to react onto the loose ball and was away again before he was clipped from behind.

Stone cold to me, and the clump of Eagles fans I was with all groaned 'Oh, no' but then crowed with delight when what looked like the ref pointing to the spot was actually to indicate a goal kick. Maybe his view was obscured by Robbo but Mr Niemirski with the bright yellow flag was fully in view and did not twitch. So, no penno.

It could have been worse when the lively Stuart Sinclair was slotted through the middle after Jacko and Nathan were comprehensively outmanoeuvred in midfield by neat first time passing between Stupple and Hatch.

Clear, he zipped towards the box but Matt Bulman was out so quickly that by the time Sinclair shot he could only hit Bully's legs and the ball deflected past the post. Good save.

Moly was lucky when Woolf was slotted through in an identical move minutes later, taking the lad out after the ball had gone. Most refs would have carded but this one was up with play throughout the match, played advantage a lot, and was to leave his cards in his pocket until the 90th minute.

Certainly Woolf benefitted from that policy when he was very late into Bully as once again the speed of the keeper easily got him first to an overhit pass. The end to end play was not finishing with many goal chances.

However it was noticable that the Bedford defence were not coping with Snaky Stanley's muscular surges to the front edge of the attack. Or able to work out how to deal with Andy Chapman's crosses – as the corner count mounted their disarray became more and more visible.

Bully kept Ciren in the match with another stunning stop. Hatch had been played through the backline up the right, pulled his cross back on the deck. When the lively Andy Phillips was blocked comprehensively by a magnificent Moly recovery, the loose ball fell to Stupple in a yard of space.

One touch to steady and bang. It proved to be one touch too many because in that time Bully was out 10 yards and blocked. Instinctive goal keeping but superb reactions as well. In spite of frequently being made to chase in midfield, where Jacko was playing like an old fashioned Inside Right, Ciren are now not only dogged but believe in themselves.

That winter habit of gesticulating angrily and shoulder shrugging when a move breaks down has been replaced by getting back into shape – even Chappo is tracking back these days, yes! And Ciren are always moving and looking for space when we have the ball. Shax did it to perfection on 45 minutes.

Getting outside, Collins again fed him into the right space. Over went the cross, from Shax's well weighted return pass with Collins making the support run to collect it. Looping over to Chappo wide on the left, who is nothing if not confident with his touch. Even though Rob Miller is one of the quickest and most experienced defenders at this level, Chappo collected under challenge.

Instant control, standing strong, he turned inside and drove in hard and low. Ping pong off the panicked defenders and there was Steve Robertson, ball in space and the goal open. Seemed to take an age but instead of slashing at it he was aware, put his foot on the ball and then poked it through the gap between the keeper and the post and Ciren had a lead on half time.

It looked as if Ciren would build on that but Bedford are also made of stern stuff and within a few minutes were back to probing through the middle and using their nippy flank men.

On 53 minutes Woolf was again released smartly through the middle and Shax, chasing, clipped him as he reached the box. Penalty, put away straight down the middle by the calm Rob Miller.

Bedford buzzed. And the 'old' Ciren may well have accepted their fate and folded. Not this one. Alex Stanley raised his game, kept finding Andy Chapman who had been getting himself into space all match and was now being fed time after time.

Shax was inside up the middle or wide right, making it hard for Lawley to advance up the Bedford left. Moly had got on top of the lively Phillips. And Nathan, while not quite matching Stupple in close control and picking the pass, was certainly more effective in closing down and stopping the flow of midfield Bedford passing.

Bedford were starting to concede free kicks with monotonous regularity. And a series of close calls ended on 65 minutes when an Andy Chapman free kick soared in, impossible to defend, to land on the edge of the 6 yard box.

The space had been cleared by the in and outs of Moly and Snaky and Paul Cochlin was into that gap to connect and lift the ball neatly over the advancing Andy Stevens to drop into the back of the net. Oggy and Adie must have been quietly pleased to see a routine work to perfection. That was a top rate goal there, and the Shed Enders greeted it as such.

The cross and movement was so good, and so slick, that it fooled the camera as well. I'm posting it anyway, even if it is out of kilter, to mark Cockers first goal for the club. Though somebody in the Muppets had thought it was Robbo's leap that had connected.

Hard as Bedford tried, Ciren were now bossing the match. Taking advantage of the space opening up as the Eagles attacked - and were calmly repulsed by a solid defence – Snaky kept being sent away up top. Love him to bits, he makes defenders earn their corn. And while, like everybody else, I want him to score it ain't going to happen if he goes for goal from less than evens positions.

Twice, with half a yard on the defender, he shot too early from just outside the box. Right move though, the ball fizzing beyond the far post so he is getting his range. But, both times Shax had made yards at pace to be clear in the D and just needing a pass to have a better chance of notching.

Though Snaky was unfortunate when Chris Collins, having quite a tussle with the spiky Woolf, made himself first to poke Robbo away up the right at the cost of getting a spiteful late boot on him as the pass went away. Snaky was in space far post and Robbo miscued the cross, much to his own dismay, to skew too close to Stevens.

Bedford kept battering away, Draycott perhaps a bit too literally as his continuing fouling finally earned him a yellow right at the end, with Snaky and the misnamed Steve Gentle also being yellowed on 95 minutes. What was notable though was the way the Ciren defence closed off every angle whenever Bedford had the ball and forced them to play early and over the top.

Bully was making the defence do it, keeping them 20 yards away and calmly collecting whatever came in to him. In that last 20 minutes the sheer cussedness of Ciren meant that Bedford made not one cross from or near the bye line. Now, that is good defending by the whole team, not just the back four.

Afterwards the Bedford manager mentioned lack of fight and lack of organisation in his team. He could just as well have noted that though he had probably the 3 most spectacular players on the pitch, he was facing a team that collectively did a good job on the day

Centurions: Matt Bulman, Chris Collins (c), Alex Stanley, Nathan Haisley, Lee Molyneux, Paul Cochlin, Matt Shaxton, Michael Jackson, Steve Robertson, Nick Stanley Y94, Andrew Chapman
subs: Dan Wallington, Jon Else, Hamid Romdhane, Paul Hunt, Adie Viveash

Eagles: Andrew Stevens. Rob Miller [Ian Draycott 80 ], Eddie Lawley, Craig Grieve, Steve Gentle Y94, Adam Fry, Jon Woolf, Derwayne Stupple (c), Andrew Phillips, James Hatch [Michael Lyon 71 Y90], Stuart Sinclair
subs: Paul Dwyer, Ini Amaegbe

Ref: Mr M Russell, Bristol I thought he did OK – played advantage consistently and by and large was on top of the game.

BUT, big but, in my opinion he got the Shax penno wrong, big time. Mind you, looking at the picture, maybe it was Robbo's backside obscuring his view?

Had at least 4 occasions when he could have booked folks. But in keeping with the way he was running the game, kept his pencil in his pocket until the very end.

I'm not sure what I think about that. The lad who carried on with his run and gave Bully a right late one, first half, meant to do damage. The same fella got into a nasty scuffle with Chrissy, who gave the lad the benefit of his right toecap when he started to get ansty.

Att: 188 Encouraging – must have been a goodly number of Eagles here today, well over 30 at least.

Including Andy Mathers from Bristol, who had persuaded his mate Mark Batterham to come down with him.

Mark's grandad Ken Hudson is an ex-Ciren from the Smithfield days and when he died recently we honoured him with a wreath laid at the ground

We are gently enticing back the Ciren fans, each week. Few more good results and we could be holding a raffle to see who is allowed into the ground.

MoM Difficult – lots of people voted in a busy clubhouse. Except Andy James who voted for Chappo via the Forum, so eager was he to get home and see whether IR had finished painting his door.

In spite of again showing he is unmatched in putting the ball where it has to be put, and winning a couple of really feisty tackles second half when Miller was giving him some welly, Chappo came one vote behind Robbo. These fans who vote for the goal scorers! I don't know.

I voted for Cocker – his anticipation and distribution were top class today – but, in spite of collecting a fair few nods he was still behind Matt Bulman. No argument – those saves in the first half were outstanding so I'll forgive him not kicking away their penno. Chairman is smiling in the picture – why?