Boss Tim Flowers happy with point as Stratford Town and Nuneaton Borough share the spoils

TIM Flowers had no qualms with ten-man Stratford Town coming away from their trip to Nuneaton Borough with a share of the spoils – but felt referee Niall Smith ‘lost control’ of proceedings.

In a game of few clear-cut opportunities, Will Grocott probably should have nosed the visitors ahead in the fifth minute, but his shot was well saved by Tony Breeden.

A change in Borough tactics, made during a delay in play due to an innocuous injury to Breeden, changed the course of the game somewhat, with Liam O’Brien called upon a couple of times to keep the scores at 0-0 going into the break.

The second period pretty much followed the first, but free-flowing football was far from possible with the number of stoppages for bookings.

In the end a total of 11 yellow cards were shown and one red, which was brandished to Jack Storer with 20 minutes to go after he picked up a second booking.

The Bards held on though to come away with a deserved point, one which inched them further from the drop zone.

“The pitch was dry, bobbly and showing signs of wear, so it wasn’t a great surface to try and play football on,” said Flowers.

“We changed the shape to a 4-3-2-1 and we started really brightly, but then Breeden’s gone down and it gave Borough a chance to regroup. They switched to four at the back and that stifled our play a little.

“In the second half there were so many yellow cards and I felt like the referee lost control and was trying to get involved in a game that wasn’t that physical.

“When that happens there’s always going to be a red and Jack ended up on the receiving end of that.

“However, if that tackle was worth a second yellow, then Luke Benbow should have been sent off for a frustrating tackle on Jordan Williams.

“Overall, though, I was happy with the point.”