Mitch Brundle gives his verdict on the weekends action.
It was a whirlwind start to the campaign for the Whites after coming from two goals down against Torquay United to eventually salvage a point. Zidan Sutherland and Roman Charles-Cook scored to ensure that both teams left the field with a point each, but not before hitting the crossbar twice through Zidan and Bello. It was a game of high energy, even in the deluge of rain that was more akin to a match in November than on the opening day of the season.
‘We are delighted’, said Brundle. ‘It feels like a win coming from 2-0 down. Some sloppy goals, we gifted them the first one but showed great desire and determination, all the things that I ask for. We changed things at half time in terms of how I thought we could hurt them. We went positive and I knew if we played football we would get a result. They are favourites to go up so I’m delighted.’
It was a sentiment that our Gaffer echoed talking to Kent Online Sport. ‘It’s a fantastic start to the season,’ reflected 28-year-old Brundle. ‘But we don’t want to get too carried away. When they’re 2-0 up, you sort of think ‘Ooh, what’s going on?’ But we went in at half-time and saw we were creating problems, but it was just sloppy errors for the goals. The way we changed at half-time, we showed real bouncebackability. I know I’ve got that in the dressing room now. It’s hard to see if we have got that in pre-season because the games don’t mean anything. But to come from 2-0 down against a top side in this league and draw 2-2, that’s a fantastic result.
It’s brilliant for the football club. There’s lots of things being said around the football club at the minute. I’m just glad that we’ve managed to put a little positive on people going home – you see them all smiling, applauding us off, because they saw the work-rate that we put in from start to finish.”
Debutant defender Chevron McLean was the unlucky victim of an early own goal but his performance after the error went a long way to eradicating it. Brundle said: “He just didn’t move his feet. Some of these boys, they’re going to make mistakes. They’ve got to learn from them quickly to stay in the team, but that’s the type of character you want. You can make a mistake in your first game for the club – four minutes in he scored an own goal – and some players could fold. But thankfully, he didn’t.’
The Whites head to Slough Town this Saturday looking for their first three points of the new season and we hope to see as many of you there as we can.
COYW