On a hot day and wide pitch a very strong engine lineup on paper started incredibly brightly passing the ball around at pace and frankly tearing into liberal who seemed shocked at how fellow basement strugglers had started. Any threat posed by liberal was being stopped by stu in particular being strong in the challenge. Liberal had two quality players number four and the lad at the back, after fifteen minutes of constant pressure and some near missed engine got the breakthrough as a ball dropped to jim bye who expertly dispatched the finish with power on the half volley, great goal. Engine rampant....... From the kick off engine were once again on the front foot, Steve Shirley and Tommo dominating the middle of the park. Jim bye on the right looking very lively being and full of tricks but being egged on by the gaffer to release the ball earlier which showed some benefits as the ball moved around quicker. Jims pace always a threat. Liberal were being kept to relying on the long ball in hope of something dropping to them, this wasn't working for them and everytime we went forward we looked the best we had looked all season. Jimmy p was kind of active up front but the gaffer wanted to see more , tabbys running was again first class but not much was dropping to him. 35 mins in and from a half cleared cross from ash the ball fell to jim p who finished brilliantly from distance , engine two nil up. From here it looked like this would be six seven nil but a breakaway a minute from half time saw al pull back their attacker and a soft penalty was awarded and put away well by the liberal keeper. Somehow 2-1 half time. Nothing was changed and engine were told to keep moving the ball at pace and not revert to the long ball. Gaffer felt certain we'd run out winners, into the second half engine started slowly and liberal had upped their game and were now seeing lots of ball coming through their number four. Tackles started flying in and I'm not sure how Steves Kung fu kick and tabbys ten second late hack were not yellow carded. The game was getting scrappy, engine still in control but the fluency had gone . Ash was seeing more ball down the right and providing crosses but disappointedly no one was attacking the balls. Liberal were forcing the play and a failed clearance bounced to their number four who blasted the ball past the helpless poults. Unbelievable two all.... Engine rallied desperate to get the win, Into the last fifteen mins engine were all over the liberal but the winner wouldn't come. Andy c and idi were brought on probably ten mins to late but I was convinced the win was coming. Final result two all. On the plus side for 75% of the game we looked brilliant, but like in the heathcote game we didnt finish it off which has been our curse all season. So, we finished second bottom. Not sure of the drop yet ...... The performances (apart from heathcote) over the last few months have been excellent, the squad looks stronger than ever. I'm not resigning and if the squad sticks together we will have an excellent season next year. PUE !
