1st Team Results
1st Team 0 - 1 Old Manorians
Venue: Home
Referee:
An unfortunate loss yesterday against the league leaders and the most likely team to win the league this season.
Our small squad of 13 ended up going down to 11 before kick off as we gave a player to the reserves, who were short and another lad was running seriously late. We started Eric, who's been away from the side for 2 years. He hadn't played regularly in 9 months but did amazingly well.
In this game, we had a pride to play for and started a little jittery with Manorians immediately launching balls and pressing very quickly around the pitch. We settled down after about 10-15 minutes and started forging some attacks ourselves.
The game was very tight with not many openings either side and the tussle was intriguing with many personal duels around the pitch. We had a few clear chances on their goal but pulled the shots. After about 30 minutes an attack down our left hand hand side saw the oppo overlap and run the ball into the corner. The resulting cross was flicked on near post and their left back ghosted in - unmarked to pass the ball into the net. It was a 'sickening' goal to concede considering we were matching the oppo in every department.
We restarted and get our rhythm back. We had good phases of play but failed to really test their keeper.
We went into half time. We discussed the few areas of concern and resumed the contest. The second half was pretty much like the first only the oppo still resulted in long balls at every opportunity but we started gaining a hold in the game. They started bickering among themselves and with us and hard tackles starting coming in. The referee was 'bullied' by Manorians and failed to protect Nick Lewis and Mike Ramsay from some 'off the ball' or late challenges.
More chances came but we failed to find the target or Manorians keeper was well positioned to protect their lead. The game became a little disjointed with a number of altercations flaring up around the pitch. Manorians were struggling to hold onto their lead and were tested like they've probably not been too many times this season.
Unfortunately this was not enough and Manorians nicked the 3 points. We need to pick up 3 more wins and start converting the chances we consistently create during games. But the work rate was excellent and with a full bench we probably would have had enough to 'roll over' Manorians as the game wore on.
Back to some had work at training and committed performance next week.
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