A much better performance until the referee remembered that Rushden were full time and we are part time.

I thought first goal offside and second goal was handball, the third however was a well taken goal Lots of 50/50 became 70/30's in Rushdens favour.

Karl Munroe played well and it was not handy losing Bushell so early on.

Overall it was a better performance until the sucker second goal went in.

No idea why Val got sent off, totally baffling but expected nothing less from a very poor official.

Fed up with officials when we play ex league \ Full time clubs and thats all I will say on the subject.

Rushden were nothing special and will not worry any of the teams at the top as far as I am concerned.

Who was on the bench? Didn't go today so can't comment on game, but after 30 mins it's 0-0, Bushell has to go off and we bring a stiker on. We quickly go behind and then within 2 mins the games gone.

Was Aspinall or Rose on the bench?

Aspinall was on the bench and came on for Scotty in the 2nd half.

It was a very attacking bench.

Lugsden, Hendley , Aspinall , Thornley and AN OTHER. Rose was out before the match but I'm sure he wasn't a named sub.

According to sporting life Rose was on the bench

Well that makes sense on why he was out before the game

Still think we were playing better upuntil the 2nd goal going in.

well done rushden 2 off side goals and still managed to win

I know exactly what you mean, we have seen it so many times in our short time in the conference(Crawley).

Ex league teams seem to get ever decision.

You are spot on

Do you honestly believe that refs are briefed to be biased against part-time teams?

Not at all.

Refs have a tendency to be biased (slightly) towards the home side, this may have been the case today however it is hardly a shocking revelation.

IMO today he wasn't biased, just crap.

Today we were better than Sunday,but just not good enough on the day.Try to take positives out of today

Munroe played alright and wasn't directly at fault for any of the goals
We are still above Northwich
It is only 7 games in...i'd be more worried if we played like this March/April
If we play like we did against Stevenage,we will not worry about relegation.

THOUGHT HENDLEY PLAYED WELL CREATED SOME GOOD CHANCES JUST WAS CROWDED OUT BY THE RUSHDEN DEFENCE, DIDN'T HELP MATTERS WITH COLIN LITTLE VERTUALLY PLAYING RIGHT-BACK SO WHEN WE DID GET FORWARD THE SUPPORT WAS SLOW IN COMING. HOWEVER I THINK THAT IF WE PLAY LIKE WE DID IN THE OPENING HALF HOUR MORE THIS SEASON AND FINISH MORE OF THE CHANCES WE MAKE WE HAVE NO WORRYS.

.

It is now

and it is again...

also, it says on the alty website that we lst 3-1...who scored our goal?? I think I missed it!!

My first game of the season and while I thought we did OK for much of the game, I'm worried about this season.

Don't know if the first goal was offside but the Alty players seemed to be berating each other rather than the linesman afterwards. I didn't think the second goal was handball.
No idea why Val was sent off - someone said he'd aimed a kick at their player. Let's hope we can appeal it and get it overturned so that he doesn't have to serve a ban.

My worry is that we weren't really an attacking threat in the game. I think this was mainly because we had two central midfielders (Lawton and Bushell) playing in the wide positions. Haven't seen Bowler so I don't know what he could offer but I'm really hoping Potts gets up to full fitness at Burscough and comes back to us soon.
O'Neill is obviously lacking confidence in terms of shooting at goal but his general play was good and I think he and Colin could do well together. But they need more attacking help from the wide players. Rod also did well when he came on.

Never expected the season to be anything other than another struggle but I think, with a weaker defence than last season IMO, we need to offer more going forward if we're going to stay out of trouble.

the referee was terrible. I'm not normally one for blaming the refs, and I don't blame him for the result, but it's only accurate to report that he was abysmal.

Would he have been terrible if you had won?

Isn't it funny that more fould you commit the more biased the referee seems to be against you.

... I would have said the referee was terrible if we'd won. That's why I said that I didn't blame him for the result - because I was separating the two things.

Do try to keep up.

Can I just say when we BEAT St Albans I thought the Ref was TERRIBLE also.

I thought the ref was great and you lost 3-0