John Smith's PNE Fans' Panel verdict: Keane is flavour of the month with supporters
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I personally believe our squad has been ready for an injection of new blood for at least a couple of seasons.
And it was Will Keane, one of our new additions, who certainly made the travelling faithful’s mouths water when he fired home a more than deserved equaliser four minutes from time.
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Hide AdHis late strike gave us a share of the spoils and earned us a decent away point at our customary happy hunting ground of Ashton Gate.
Our delighted fans who danced in the stands proclaimed in true Will Grigg style that our new signing from Wigan was on fire and that he had terrified the defence of our opponents.
However, although I thought that this was not strictly true our former loanee seemed to have struck more of a bond with the fans in this one game than he had done in his previous six-month loan spell, as the striker equalled his dismal one-goal tally in his first outing.
Prior to this game I had been asked by several people where I thought our club would finish in this season’s Championship, to which I replied anywhere between ninth and 15th.
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Hide AdHowever, the division is so tight with little to choose between most teams after the parachute payment-loaded big hitters of the Premier League that even Paul the psychic German octopus of Euro 2008 would struggle to predict their exact positions.
In an uneventful first half even though I thought we had the lion’s share of the possession we were hardly roaring and it was our hosts who had the best chance to take the lead before the break, but keeper Freddie Woodman was equal to this one-on-one effort.
When our hosts took the lead in the opening minute of the second half it looked like the game would slip away and our decent away following would have to endure an opening day painful defeat.
However, we responded well and to our credit we rallied and the travelling fans who got behind their team were eventually rewarded with Keane’s effort four minutes from time.
Special mention must go to local lad Kian Best who, in my opinion, did not look out of place at left wing-back on his Championship debut and looks like a real prospect.