I would firstly like to say that I won’t be mentioning what happened between Jon and the Croydon striker in this match report. It was a moment of pure madness on Jon’s part which he knows and has since apologized for. We all make errors in judgment from time to time and for me, it’s over and done with.
We started the game extremely well and looked to take advantage of the large pitch by spraying the ball round from right to left at every possible opportunity but it was Croydon who had the real first chance of the game. A lucky deflection broke to the Croydon striker whose shot was blocked well by Luke onto the post for a corner. We continued to dominate the opening exchanges and a good move down the left led to the opening goal. Harry combined with Eddy who laid the ball into Raymond who curled a quite superb shot which looped over the goalie into the back of the net. 0-1.
We continued to play the best football and looked solid at the back which was extremely pleasing to see but unfortunately we couldn’t maintain our lead. Jon failed to clear his lines at the back which led to the Croydon striker breaking free and placing his shot passed Luke into the back of the net. 1-1. There was reason to believe that the Croydon striker may have been offside when the ball was played through however the linesman gave the goal much to the annoyance of Jon. Jon’s frustrations then led to the aforementioned confrontation which then led to us going down to 10 men.
This mass drama seemed to have a massive affect on our mentality and Croydon took full advantage by creating several opportunities, albeit all too easily. We were then punished for letting our concentration drop as Croydon scored a second to make the game 2-1. We then shifted our formation to 4-4-1 which gave us more balance and slowly we started to get back in the game although we were happy to hear the half time whistle. 2-1 HT.
We spoke about giving the second half a real good go and I think we did that. We played the better football and always looked dangerous on the break. Yes, we did have to ride our luck a touch as we were always going to concede chances with 10 men but we defended as a team and I thought we always had a chance if the game stayed at 2-1. We then managed to get ourselves back on level terms with an excellent goal. Ivan played a delightful ball in behind the Croydon defense to Danny H who beat his man and the keeper brilliantly and fired in the equalizer. 2-2.
This goal gave us real belief that we might be able to snatch a dramatic win but unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. I was dispossessed on the left hand side by their right winger who played a good ball through to his striker team mate who rounded Luke and finished into the empty net. 3-2.
We again responded well to going a goal behind and might have been awarded penalty after Ivan was impeded inside the area. The referee however waived away the penalty shouts. Ivan was involved again a short time later and might of thought he should have got his head on to the end of a superb free kick delivery from Eddy. We then managed to get in behind the back line and might have scored if it wasn’t for the fact that a Croydon player was down on the ground clutching his head. We basically stopped when this happened assuming the referee would blow his whistle due to the head injury but instead let the game continue. Croydon then broke quickly, managed to win themselves a corner which they eventually scored from. A real kick in the teeth considering where the goal stemmed from. 4-2 FT.
Lads, plenty of positives to take from this game, especially considering we played with 10 men for the majority of the game and Croydon had several substitutions they could roll on and off at anytime. We played some great football at times and Croydon even admitted we were the better team which we can take a lot of encouragement from. I have no doubts that we would have won this game if we had 11 men for the entire game.
Corinthian Guildford this weekend and a chance to continued our great run of form in the league.
COYH!!!
