A real disappointing result today and an even more frustrating result considering we once again had to play a large part of the game with 10 men!!
We didn’t start the game as well as we have in recent games and it was Chilworth who looked to stamp their authority on to the game early on. We did however come closest to scoring during the early stages of the gane. Good play down the left hand side led the ball being played into Ivan who saw his shot deflect off the outside of the post.
Chilworth continued to have a fair amount of the play but didn’t really create any clear cut opportunities and as we started to get a stronger foothold into the game, the worst possible thing happened and Mumford go injured which left us down to 10 men with no substitutions available and roughly ¾ of the game left to play!!
We dug in for the remainder of the half and made sure the game stayed 0-0 going into half time. HT 0-0.
We switched things around at the break and spoke about making the most out of any set pieces that we did win. I thought we had the better of the second half’s chances despite only having the 10 men and managed to win several free kicks in dangerous positions but unfortunately we couldn’t turn any of these into goals although we did come extremely close on one occasion. A great ball into the box from the right hand side managed to fall to Harry on the byline who fired a cross come shot into the six yard area but could only see his effort scrambled off the line despite our protests that the ball did in fact cross the line.
We continued to frustrate Chilworth and defended extremely well as a unit which led to them creating very few opportunities however a ball over the top was to finally be our undoing. A lofted ball into the Chilworth striker who was clearly sitting in an offside position, left him one on one with Luke and despite Luke’s best efforts, the ball managed to find its way into the back of our net, albeit with a lucky deflection off Luke. Conceding this goal was extremely frustrating given that their striker was sitting offside but we can’t have any complaints as it was their linesman who was doing our line as a favor.
We almost responded in the perfect way by creating our best chance of the match. A great ball in behind the defense from Danny fell to me, I then cut the ball back to Ivan who couldn’t quite turn his shot into the back of the net as the keeper scrambled the ball to safety.
Chilworth looked to sit on this goal and looked increasingly more nervous as the match drew to a close. We continued to win free kicks in dangerous areas but couldn’t quite find that elusive goal and the game finished in our first league defeat since September. FT 0-1.
We can count ourselves very unlucky to be on the losing side. I think a draw would have been fair based on the overall play of the entire game but you don’t know what could have been if we had 11 men for the 90 minutes.
We should have a few new additions to the squad in the New Year so I’m hoping this kind of situation doesn’t happen again as its frustrating for all of us. I thought we held our own brilliantly in the second half so we can’t let this result effect whats been an excellent first half of the season.
We’ve got a full January worth of fixtures lined up including a cup game against Pyrford Social so enjoy the two week break, have a great Christmas and New Year and ill see you all right up for our next league fixture on the 6th January.
Ho, Ho, Ho, COYH!!
