OUR unbeaten run is over. In truth, we were always going to do really well to stretch it to six with the trip to Brackley Town although the task was made much harder by the absence of our two most influential players.

We knew Stephen Thompson was going to be suspended, but that loss was compounded several times over when the team was announced without the flu-ridden Reece Styche. With our two main attacking threats missing, it was likely to be a long afternoon and in the end, it played out that way.

Three-nil was a bit harsh. We actually played reasonably well although the way Brackley set up, we were always going to have plenty of possession in the parts of the pitch where we could do them no harm. For all of the shifting of possession from side to side, we struggled to land a scoring punch against a side unbeaten at home and with the joint-best defence in the league. It’s hard not to be impressed with Brackley. They don’t press needlessly higher up the pitch. Instead, they sit waiting for you to push on and then like a predator lurking for unsuspecting prey, they strike hard and fast. They get numbers forward quickly and before you can reset, they’ve scored. Their approach seems to be something close to rope-a-dope.

With that in mind, it’s really hard to get a feel of what we could have done had Thompson and Styche been on the pitch. It felt like we had plenty of possession and we got in and around their box plenty of times, but the extra bit of quality we needed to make the most of it was lacking. It was hard to knock the front two of Dave Syers and Harvey Saunders but unfortunately, Syers needs someone to play off rather than actually leading the line and Saunders just isn’t at the same level as Styche. I know Tommy Wright came out and said that he wasn’t looking to bring any more players in this season but I worry about what would happen if we were to lose Styche for an extended period or if he were to lose form. As our only striker of proven quality, it feels like we’re treading on thin ice. I would feel a lot happier if there was another option up front who could maybe lighten the workload and reliance on Styche.

Post-game, there was some focus on the referee’s decision to book on of the Brackley players for bringing down Harvey Saunders on the edge of the home team’s area. Might a red card for the home side have fundamentally changed the pattern of the game? Who knows? However, standing nearly level with the incident and having watched the replay of it several times, I think the referee was correct with the yellow card. A red would have been a long stretch as the probability of Saunders getting on to the through-ball looked pretty slim with the goalkeeper being pretty sharp to come and collect. I would have been very disappointed if we had lost a man in the same situation.

With the unbeaten run gone, we need to dust ourselves down and hopefully start another unbeaten run as soon as possible. While the odds were always against us at Brackley, we mustn’t allow this defeat to derail our recent good progress moving away from drop zone. With the teams below us having games in hand, our five point cushion to the last relegation spot could disappear very quickly.