A different game from last week, we had more than 11 players and the kit turned up at least half an hour before kick off. So that made it easier!
At the request of their manager we played three 30m thirds, I think this was to accommodate their influx of players from AOG. We started with a pretty strong line up, Chris and Sam returned after impressive debut performances last week, even if they were sporting differing injuries. We stuck with the 4-4-2 formation that worked for us last weekend and got off to a good start. For the first 30 minutes we played some good football, Berni was great again with Sam, Bren and Paul also doing well. We kept the ball, played some good stuff and were unlucky to end the third level. We had a couple of decent chances to score and should really have been in front. Although the game was a pre-season friendly there were plenty of tackles flying in, most were fine but there were a few late ones and one of these got Pete excited. After a bit of pushing and shoving and a 'discussion' with the ref Pete was swapped with Dan and we finished the third.
We made a few changes for the second third and we never seemed to really get going. They brought on some decent players, and put us under a bit of pressure. We managed to get a goal against the run of play with Dan Atkins scoring on his debut, the balled was played back by Matt to his brother who hit a nice effort from just inside the area which - with the help of a slight deflection - evaded the keeper. This should have let us get the ball down and play football in the way that we can, but the clash in formations seemed to favour Arena and they made the most of the extra man in midfield to keep putting the pressure on. One attack resulted in Anthony wiping out their left winger and conceding a free kick, this was played in and after a bit of a scramble the ball ended up in our net, despite Joz's best flap. Another dangerous break ended with Matt W Conceding a foul right on the edge of the area, they hit the target with the resulting free kick and Joz made a fairly straightforward save to make sure we ended the third level.
We went out for the final third with a draw being a pretty fair result at that point, we were by far the better team in the first 30 minutes and they were the better team in the middle third. We made a few more changes in personnel, but we didn't change the formation which in hindsight was probably a mistake. The extra man in the middle was still making the difference despite Paul and Dave both having good games and working hard. The heat was having an impact on us and we didn't seem to be using the ball as well as we have done before. The ball was being moved forward too quickly and the patient possession football that suits us best wasn't happening. With about 15 minutes left a ball was played into our box and without man of the match Matt W back there we didn't deal with it as well as we could have. After a bit of a scramble the ball was tucked away nicely and we were down a goal and not looking like we could find a way back.
It wasn't the worst performance, and they were a decent team. The formations favoured them and we didn't find a way to enforce our shape or style of football on the game the way that we should be able to. I would expect us to give them a decent game when we play them in the season.
