Boots succumbed to their first league defeat of the season against a fairly mediocre Plumtree side. After an opening 10 minutes in which the ball rarely strayed from the middle of the pitch, Boots started to threaten, and Sweetman released Luke down the right who cracked the post with a fierce shot. In the next attack, Sweetman switched the ball to the left, and Crozier was unlucky not to see his shot/cross converted by Ian and Luke. Plumtree played a fairly obvious long-ball tactic which Luke, Toobs and Fletch coped well with, seeing any danger back to Neil who had to be sharp in his area. Following a strong tackle on his ankle, Luke Smith was replaced by Spence, who had to endure pressure straightaway as Plumtree began to find their feet, hitting the post and then seeing a shot cleared off the line by Phil just before half-time.
Plumtree finally made the most of their domination in midfield at the start of the second half and their striker dribbled his way from the left and shot from a tight angle to open the scoring. Patto then came on for Crozier with Luke Turner going to left wing, and Boots began to create several chances from throw-ins – Patto, Ian and Paul all coming close from scrambles in the 5 yard box, while Phil also tried his luck from long-range. Finally Boots equalised – some neat passing between attack and midfield allowed Man of the Match Ian to play a ball across the edge of the area (the ball bypassing a defender who kicked at fresh air), and Patto smashed the ball beyond the keeper into the roof of the net.
The game appeared to be edging towards a draw, with Boots creating a few half-chances from corners and some good running from Aidan (who replaced Sweetman), while the tiring Plumtree only threatened once when one of their many long-balls wasn’t properly cleared and their striker missed the cut-back from 10 yards. Unfortunately fate had other plans and Plumtree won a corner with 4 minutes to go; a dangerous cross was swung in and their midfielder beat Neil to the ball, nodding home from less than a centimetre to claim the narrowest of victories.
