Coundon Hall Park became our third different home venue in the past three games for the visit of Meredith Road.
For the third game running confirming the team was left until late Friday evening with Joe Atkins making the 11 for his first turn out for Affinity.
A typical game against Meredith sums up the 90 minutes. Tough, nasty in places, and not high on the enjoyability scale! Playing with the wind in the first half Affinity survived an early scare with Gary B saving well with his feet to prevent a disastrous start. Rarely pretty the rest of the first half was a battle of attrition with late challenges a plenty but the attitude of the Affinity team in the face of provocation was superb.
Gary B was called into action a number of times as a very mobile and fast strike partnership tested Affinity's defence on a number of occasions. Ian, Sean, Jake and Charlie kept a fairly tight line and snuffed out Meredith advances frustrating them as the half progressed. Gary C and Jamie battled hard to compete in the centre of midfield with James and Luke providing the outlet on the flanks. Will using his strength well with his back to goal held the ball up and brought others in to play. Joe ran the channels without much reward and had Affinity's best chance of the half seeing his snapshot tipped over the bar by Sully in the Meredith goal.
Unfortunately the second half followed a similar pattern to the first with Meredith making the most of an indecisive young referee. Arguably Affinity could and should have had a penalty when Joe was taken down and Joe nearly put Affinity ahead with a fine shot going just wide. Gary B saved well again with is feet to keep the scores level.
Eventually pressure told and Meredith scored two goals to sink Affinity’s valiant efforts. The first goal came direct from a corner bending into the far top corner and Affinity will be disappointed with the second not closing down quickly enough with attackers advancing.
Gary B takes his first Man of the Match award with some fine saves keeping Affinity in the game well into the second half. Special mention also to Will for a battling performance holding the ball up well throughout
