A day of missed chances cost the Tigers today, coupled with an excellent performance from the Jaguars keeper. Fielding an under strength team the Tigers fought hard in the first periof to contain the vastly improved Jaguars team.
Under stritch instructions to mark key players the Tigers stuck to their guns well throughout the first period, however what chances did fall to Tenko and Sam samba were well saved by the keeper. Gerrarrd held strong in defense and Rayna performed very well in the middle of the field. De Sar chased and harried well and was a constant thorn to the Jaguars team. What keeping there was to do was easily looked after by Alenski.
Into the second period and only a keeper swap was possible with Rayna, and still no Torress. Marking was always going to be key and early in the half the Jaguars broke through the midfield and drove a well struck shot past the keeper.
On 16 minutes Torress landed, but his introduction did little initially to halt the Jaguar pressure. Jaguars were fighting hard and Tigers struggled to contain them. A shot from the edge of the box saw Rayna parry the ball out only for the ball to be volleyed back in past the keeper, while Tigers defense/midfield stood and watched.
Soon afterwards a good team move saw Jaguars cap a great move off with a third goal. The second period was disappointing, but the Tigers did have their chances, Tenko had a number of runs but just didn't finish the moves off and De Sar again chased well.
Into the final period and despite the scoreline there was hope. Tigers pushed an extra person into midfield to push for an early goal and were rewarded, seemingly, with an indirect free kick on the edge of the box. Gerrarrd and Torress lined up the shot and an eager Jag lay in wait to charge down the kick. However the five yard rule turned into a three yard rule, the kick was charged down, the Jags broke up the field and made it 4 nil....
Red mist decended on the manager and after a number of words with the referee he was invited to sit in the stand.... so I did! No real excuses, its not the world Cup final but if the player had been five yards away the score would have been 3-1 not 4 nil. We have since discussed the incident to mutual satisfaction.
Back to the game....
Tigers pushed on and to their credit pressed the Jags into a number of mistakes with Torress and Gerrrard linking well. Jags gave away an indirect kick again just in their own half and retreated to the goal line, Torress free to release a shot made it 4-1. Soon afterwards Sam samba jinked inside the box only to recieve a push from behind, penalty. Sam nominated Torress who firmly converted the chance to make it 4-2.
As the game ticked on Tigers had two further chances well svaed by the keeper, without reply. However 4 goals down proved too much to pull back and despite a much better final period the result was not changed.
On a warm day fitness was called into question, perhaps a little too much Easter chocolate, but in fairness they all really tried hard and today just wasn't their day.
