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The Final Day
As we headed into the final day we had to beat Dag & Red to go up we had some different options :
-Win and Bristol Rovers draw
-Draw and Bristol Rovers lose
-Win and Rochdale lose
We had a much better goal difference to the 2 sides so heading into the final day we had some hope.
I arrived at the ground at midday to set up my pre-match preparation. I then waited for the players to arrive and sat down for a coffee. Once the players arrived I took them into the dressing room and I took each player individually into my office to chat to them about their roles during the game. I then headed back to the dressing room to reveal the team sheet.
13. Tuffey
2. Doherty
20. McChrystal
6. Camano
35. Francois
24. Assana
16. Kilkenny
21. Chori
19. Ceballos
10. Diouf
14. Nabi
I had left some key players out so I had options to bring players on when I needed them. I then gave them my team talk and the headed out onto the pitch.
We started poorly and Diouf got booked early on for a bad foul on Rowe. It was then passed around by them and eventually Reid hit a shot from 18 yard and it pierced the net almost. I was down and the team was lost. In the 36th minute Diouf got a second yellow for another foul and I was fuming and I screamed at him as he walked off the pitch. He then turned and grabbed me by the throat and chucked my on the floor. He drove home straight away and it is safe to say he will never put on an Eastleigh shirt again. The whistle blew for half time and I took the team in to the dressing room.
“Look lads, we need something we are down and we need to get back out there and give the fans this moment. Only you can do this now and only you can believe in yourselves enough to make it happen. Doherty and Chori will be coming off for Morias and Akpom.” I was going for a 3-2-1-3 formation and I told them to just give it to them. We started well and we were creating lots of chances and we almost found an equalizer through Nabi. Then we had a breakthrough and Morias scored his first goal for the club from the edge of the box and the Silverlake went wild. This wasn’t enough through and we had to keep going. We then hit the ball forward and Ceballos cut inside and bent the ball into the bottom corner. 2-1. We had moved to 3rd and we were not going to lose now. The final whistle went and all the fans ran onto the pitch. We had won promotion to League 1.
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?? Good luck to get that spot!
This season will be good
