Heed ‘boring’ as 10-man Brackley scrape a point

ALUN Armstrong admitted Gateshead fell short of his standards as they extended their mini upturn in form to just one defeat in their last five games in all competitions with a goalless draw at Brackley Town.

- 

On a frustrating day for the Heed, their visitors kept them at bay despite playing for over 80 minutes with 10 men after defender Zak Lilly was shown a straight red for a lastman challenge on Kyle Hurst.

The Heed came closest to snatching the points when David Ferguson hit the post with a header, and there were also chances for Curtis Edwards, Jacob Butterfield and Frank Nouble.

Armstrong praised Brackley for their solid defensive display but was clearly annoyed by the lack of attacking intent shown by his own players.

He told the club website: “Boring is one word to sum that up.

“The sending off probably killed it a little bit and Brackley are really good at what they do. They defend extremely well when they are in that deep, low block and it was difficult to break them down.

“But we were nowhere near good enough in possession with the ball. It was too slow, too predictable, there weren't enough people making forward runs, there wasn’t enough energy.

“We saw little touches of it against Aveley in the cup when they played in the low block. We just never finished any attacks today for some unknown reason.