Casuals and Pelham FC's late season title bid took a hit as they dropped points at home losing 2-1 to Hadham Villa. With a stop start season which is now looking like it is going to go on 2 months longer than last season with far less games, it was the first time Pelham were playing together again since 5 weeks ago, and it showed. Pelham actually started fairly brightly and for the first 10-15 minutes they dominated possession and chances. limiting Hadham Villa to one long ball which they were unable to get on the end of. However the lack of game time showed and the lack of link up play over the last few weeks was evident as the game opened up bringing the away side back in to it. Although Hadham Villa saw more of the ball they once again didn't really create anything and only really had one long ball over the top. Pelham had the most notable chances in the first half and came close to scoring through Dan Boyce, Luke Evans and George Wappett. Pelham should also have had a clear cut penalty as Luke Evans broke through and the on rushing Hadham Villa goalkeeper came out, missed the ball, punched Evans in the head and completely wiped him out. Both sides were shocked the ref didn't point to the spot. The half finished with the scores level at 0-0 but Pelham just edging it over the away side. The second half saw the home side ring the changes and the game picked up where it left off. It was a pretty even game without much being created at either end. The game took a turn when Gavin Brace went up for a header and as he came back down he landed awkwardly jolting his knee which is never a good sign considering Gavs unfortunate injury past. This is and was a massive blow to the club as Gav is such a key player and we hope the injury is not as serious as first thought and that he recovers quickly. The game continued to be tight and limited in clear cut chances but it was Pelham who took lead. George Wappett who had been a threat all day continued to run rings round defenders and managed to get a fierce shot off. The shot could only be parried by the keeper and it bounced back in the net of a close by defender making it 1-0 to Pelham. With Pelham in the lead they needed to keep it tight and maybe look for a second. However that wasn't the case and Hadham Villa broke straight away and onky creating their second chance of the game but managed to get the equaliser from it, making the score 1-1. Pelham then went in to meltdown after that and by pushing on for the winner, the team was all over the place. The formation looked disjointed and all communication and organisation went out the window as Pelham went for a winner, but in hindsight they went looking for it in the wrong way. Hadham Villa took full advantage of this and with about 10 minutes left they struck again, making it 2-1 to the away side. Pelham pushed and pushed for a second and third goal but just could not find it and eventually ended up losing the game 2-1. Not the result we wanted today lads and for me personally I think there were a number of reasons for the loss. However the season isn't finished here and we can still finish strong and even win the league still, it might be looking highly unlikely and we need results to go our way but we currently sit in third place and with a stop start season and no where near the consistency we had last season, we shouldn't be too disappointed with that. Todays man of the match was a tough one as there wasn't too much to chose from with a fairly scrappy game played out but George Wappett looked lively all day, taking on players at every opportunity and forced our goal. Two games left boys so lets try and have a strong finish and see how high we can finish, whether its holding on to third position, or even pushing on to second or first!
