Keeper needs to impose himself

SATURDAY was a real blow. For 30 or so minutes in the first half against Millwall, we played some of the best football we have produced at home this season.

Once Alex Nicholls (played, at last, in his best position) opened the scoring, the team started to knock the ball about well, with confidence soaring.

They were helped in no small measure by the return of our most creative player, Steve Jones (oh, how we've missed him while he was out injured).

As soon as Millwall's first goal went in, however, heads dropped a little and that confidence slowly drained away.

Second half, we reverted to type and the ball started to go long again, so all we were doing was giving away possession, putting pressure back on the defence.

Let's face it, Millwall definitely deserved their equaliser (despite some wayward finishing by them) and you have to think that, if it had come earlier, they would have gone on to win the game.

Rene Gilmartin came in for some criticism for that crucial first goal (and admitted responsibility himself), but it was just as much Jamie Vincent's fault.

Where Rene was culpable, however, and it's something he needs to learn, was he should have been screaming at Vincent to get out of the way so he could deal with it.

Rene always seems to be a little quiet for a keeper and they can't be shy about coming forward, so he needs to take a leaf out of the book of the likes of Peter Schmeichel, who never took any prisoners on his own side!