Feisty Robins put Magpies to flight (09.02.04)

UNITED'S winning run came to an abrupt halt at Carshalton on Monday evening, although their brave fightback from three goals down perhaps deserved a share of the points.
The Robins are in second place in the league and showed why with some sharp incisive attacking football, coupled with well organised defence. But above all else, the high work-rate meant the Magpies were never allowed to dwell on the ball.
Things went wrong for United early on, as Carshalton capitalised on a number of defensive errors and punished the Magpies with three unanswered goals.
They took the lead in just four minutes, when Kelvin McIntosh misjudged a headed clearance. With the rest of the defence caught watching, Dale Marvell picked up the ball behind the back line and gave Phil Wilson no chance.
Fifteen minutes later the Robins doubled their tally, following a badly sliced clearance by Rory Jenkins.
The ball fell to Landry Zahawa, who charged to the line before pulling the ball back into the path of Des Boateng, who made no mistake with a firm shot from 10 yards.
On a rare foray into the area, the Magpies had a good shout for a penalty, when Hawthorne clearly handled Lawrence Yaku’s effort, but neither official saw the incident, which went unpunished.
A few minutes later, Wilson contrived to drop the ball on the goalline when under no real pressure and Andy Jennings was forced to clear.
From the resulting corner, Boateng’s low cross was blocked by Brendan Gallen, but the ball fell kindly to Matt York, who crashed a shot into the corner of the net from the edge of the area.
The Magpies rallied in the last few minutes of the first half and two goals in a minute put them right back in the game.
The first came after Yaku won the ball in midfield and played a superb pass into the path of Mark Boyce, who held off the challenge from Bouadji to slot the ball wide of the keeper Searle.
Straight from the restart, Dugdale won the ball and fed it wide to Craig Farley.
His cross into the box seemed to be covered by Hawthorne, but the defender completely miskicked, leaving Steve Hale with a simple tap in.
The second half was more of a midfield battle, with both sets of defenders on top. Gary Elliott had a glorious chance of extending the lead when breaking through, but pulled the shot wide of Wilson and the post.
On the hour, Jennings fed Hale, who put Yaku in, but the final shot was a little weak and was scrambled away by Wood.
Wilson was then forced into making a couple of good saves, when first York broke through and then a Dugdale error allowed Russell in for a strike.
With five minutes to go, Zahawa beat the offside trap to break free and cross into the path of Marvell, but Wilson was again up to the task as he tipped the ball over the bar.
Ultimately, the Magpies perhaps deserved a share of the spoils, but paid a heavy price for a few simple errors.