This weekend's crunch fixture saw Deaconsfield take on Broxbourne Badgers 'A' at home in a top-of-the-table clash in Division 3. After a record 4 wins on the bounce Deaconsfield's confidence was high, especially with top-scorer Dean Trussler back from his excusion to see The Lion King.
The match took on extra gravitas as Ali Maynard used to play for Badgers before he joind the Deacs and former Deaconsfield tassle-wearing midfielder Matt Dixon is now turning out for the team from Broxbourne.
Overnight rain had softened the surface of the pitch enough to take a stud, with a nice flat pitch Deacs should have been able to get the ball down and prove themselves to be the best footballing team in the division. Badgers kicked off and set their stall out from the beginning, the ball being fed to the central defence who the pumped it upfield towards the Deacs back-line.
It took a while for Deaconsfield to settle into the game, but it wasn't long before the midfield were getting the ball down and playing it through the channels for Trussler to bustle onto in his usual inimitable style. As well as playing the better football, Deaconsfield were able to capitalise on Andy Halliwell's kicking to also create chances, with Trussler, Ravenscroft and also Wicks latching on to long clearances in the first half only to shoot wide of the goal.
Having all of the chances, if not all of the luck, it wasn't long before Trussler continued his goal-run. Latching onto another long-ball he trundled into the penalty area where he was taken out from the side and the back. A clear penalty which Deano tucked away nicely. 1-0.
Shortly after the goal, Broxbourne launched an attack deep into the Deacs area. the ball was half-cleaared to Phillips on the edge of the area, who turned back inside and went over on his ankle. The injury looked to be serious and Ricky was taken off to be replaced by Rob Walker in the middle. Rob's height and greater mobility helping to outweight the loss of creativity and dead-ball specialisation provided by the injured party.
Towards the end of the half some sloppy defending saw a corner given away, and the ensuing goalmouth scramble resulted in a goal for Broxbourne. 1-1 going into the break.
The second half was awful (with a couple of exceptions) so I'll try and keep it short.
Deacs couldn't get the ball down but somehow exerted 10 minutes of pressure early in the half which saw Franklin have a good header from a Maynard corner tipped wide by the keeper.
More sloppy defending gave away another corner resulting in another goal for Broxbourne. A rather fortuitous bounce and some plain bad goalkeeping allowing the ball to cross the line. 2-1 with 25 minutes to go.
Deacs dug in, but just couldn't find a rhythm, with Badgers making regular substitutions to keep fresh legs, and Deaconsfield lacking that option.
The game finished 2-1 to Badgers, which wasn't a terrible result, but felt like a total catastrophe at the time. A draw would have been fair to boths teams, but as usual, life goes on.
The pub afterwards was quite a depressing place to be, but then Deaconsfield's version of Abbott and Costello (look them up boys!), Wicks and Trussler managed to pull us out of the funk with Dean's nipples, X-Factor and of course Pete's mother all among the topics of conversation.
Bring on next week - a home lague fixture against mid-table Ware Lions Re-united providing a quick chance to redeem ourselves and re-discover our form.
