City were unchanged with the exception of the departed Billy Davis, replaced on the bench by teenage striker Lee Smith. The match kicked off with a swirling blustery wind carrying clouds of sleet and snow across the floodlights. It was a shame more people weren't there to enjoy the view, with a quick headcount suggesting barely 130 lost souls outside.

From the start it was Blakenall who coped better with the conditions and seemed to relish the opportunity to play. Throughout they were content to play the high ball and chase it, but then with our defence so obviously troubled by it why would anyone change? In the first few minutes one Hunt header fell to a forward, but his shot went skyward. However it wasn't long before Blakenall opened the scoring on 7 minutes. A cross eluded the absent defenders and left Ally Hines hopelessly clutching thin air as Quilt jumped above him to head the ball into the net. 

Chenoweth and Jenks busied themselves in midfield and were having some effect on Blakenall, but then the visitors didn't need their midfield to cause us problems. City dominated the play and had one good opportunity when Chennas saw his long shot saved, but the rebound pushed Cox to wide to make his shot count. Shortly after City wasted another good chance when they ploughed a corner straight off the pitch, but then saw a great chance go begging. Chennas pushed the ball forward to Baylo whose pass took out the whole defence and left Jenks racing clear, but his shot was too tame to trouble the keeper.

That gave City a real lift, but despite a whole host of opportunities never really convinced. Lee Smith was unlucky with two efforts, one perhaps fluffed but the other unluckily flew just wide of the far post. Bayliss and Cox were also in the thick of it, but shots were crashing back of defenders all over the goalmouth in a series of scrambles. It may have looked like pure luck, but Blakenall were defending well and in numbers City never manage to get behind the ball. Of course they were defending a lead by this point, and barely tried to get out of their own half. 

Things did threaten to get out of hand when Blakenall's winger went in high and collected a well swung punch off Steadman for his troubles. However I wasn't convinced that the melee that followed was about overheated tempers, probably more to do with underheated footballers looking for a cuddle. The match shivered and chattered itself to an end, with only a few more shots and scrambles to keep the sparsely populated stands hoping for a miracle.

This was an off key performance, which seemed a little half-hearted and strangely passionless for a Callinan and Godfrey creation. You can't imagine they were too impressed and will be working hard to lift the players and put some smiles on their faces. With the background difficulties at the club you feel grateful to the players just for being there, but it would be nice to see a bit more fire and desire too. There are so many good things going on off the pitch and there are plenty of people who deserve some reward on it. This may just be a hiccup as we look to level out of our current decline. I hope so, I don't like being disappointed.