Not a stellar performance.
It was definitely a case of "after the Lord Mayor's show" for the Crows on Easter Monday as they were unable to find any answers to the visitors greater determination, energy, work rate and physical strength throughout the 90 minutes and therefore, suffered a 4-0 defeat, which in reality, could have been more.
There's no doubt that the previous game away at Tunbridge Wells was the one fixture our players and fans wanted to win and probably as much emotional effort went in to that 1-0 win just as much as any physical effort.
However, the win at the Culverden Stadium is devalued somewhat when, unusually for our players, such a disappointing performance is offered to the supporters in the next game, especially at home.
No one is accusing the players for a lack of effort or application, they give 100% in every game, however, for some reason, sometimes too many players have an off-day at the same time and as a consequence, we end up watching a game as the one we saw on Easter Monday.
The visitors are not a bad side and are on a good run of form themselves, so this was not the game for many of our players to dip below the level of performance they normally give us. City were on the game right from the start and basically dominated the Crows and the match throughout.
From a Crow's perspective the most disturbing aspect of the match was that as dominant as they were, they never created the goals, they were handed to them by the Crows not defending as a team as well as they should have done.
The visitors had a great chance inside the first minute, Philpott firing high and wide when well placed, the Nzuzi had a go 3 minutes later, easily saved by Collick though. However, the tone of the match had been set and all the momentum was with the men from Canterbury.
They went ahead after 8 minutes, Jagger being penalised for holding on the edge of the area and Pilcher duly slotted the free kick past Collick and into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead to City.
The Crows were doing all the defending and didn't have their first offensive effort until the 33rd minute, Carrington's effort just going wide of the post with 'keeper Harris beaten.
The referee then became the centre of attention as yellow cards seemed to be handed out like confetti, Carrington seeing yellow for a challenge on their goalie in the 35th minute, Xavier sees yellow in the 39th minute for a late tackle and then debutant, Rory Salter, sees yellow in the 40th minute, however, the Crows were made to pay from the resulting free kick again.
Lawrence being able to tap in from close range after the Crow's defence didn't deal with the free kick well enough and the ball was allowed to be crossed from beyond the back post to give Lawrence the chance to score.
Only 4 minutes later and it was 3-0 to City, Pilcher laying the chance on a plate for Philpott to tap in, again, poor defensive work gifted the ball away and at half time it was obvious that the Crows were not likely to get anything out of this game the way they were playing.
As the second half started, Shea had a shot on goal, saved by Harris but this proved to be a false dawn for the Crows as normal service was soon resumed and City to a grip on the game once more.
In the 51st minute Jagger is the third Crow to be booked for a blatant body-check on a City player, then in the 53rd minute, 3-0 became 4-0, Philpott lobbing the ball over Collick from some distance out following a quick throw.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of the events leading up to the throw in, you can never switch off and lose concentration of the situation and possible dangers, something the Crows did and therefore, suffered the consequence.
Casey saw yellow for City in the 55th minute, then 2 minutes later Butler became the fourth Crow to be booked for throwing the ball away. Carrington had to go off with what looked like a broken wrist in the 69th minute, Spear replacing him and in the 71st minute, Xavier was replaced by Lauren for City.
The visitors were still dominating the second half, Casey having a couple of efforts and then Butler went off to be replaced by Joe Newman, another young debutant, in the 79th minute.
In the remains minutes, Biddlecombe became the fifth Crow to be booked and substitutions abounded, Simmons making way for Gilbert to come on for City.
Lawrence went off to be replaced by Wickham in the 90th minute and, if truth be known, everyone associated with the Crows, couldn't wait for the final whistle to be blown and to put us out of our misery.
Not a good day at the office and the Crows will definitely have to step up their game if they are to come away from Deal Town with any points in their next match.