A catalogue of comical errors saw Haddonfield’s 6 game winning streak brought to an abrupt end and the side dumped out of the Division 2 Cup by Olympic Greenwich.
With centre backs Brad Davis and Adam Pantelli missing the game, Matt Seamons and Chris Willis dropped in from right midfield and centre forward respectively. Matt Bell moved across from left to right midfield, John O’Connor from central midfield to left midfield, Harry Butcher moved in to central midfield for his first start of the season and the side also welcomed back Rob Savage, who slotted back in up top after missing the previous game.
Within 10 minutes, it was 2-0 to Olympic Greenwich. The first goal coming from sloppy passing at the back, with the ball being gifted to an opposing player on the edge of the box and swiftly put in to the back of Sam Holland’s net. The next goal came from a shot from the edge of the box that didn’t seem to carry much power being split into the near post by the Haddonfield keeper.
In keeping with the theme of the day, another hospital ball out from defence was played straight to an Olympic Greenwich striker, who calmly squared the ball for his strike partner to slot home and make it 3-0 after 25 minutes.
It could have been more than 3 with the woodwork coming to Haddonfield’s aid on more than 1 occasion and OG looking like they were going to score every time they attacked – which was worryingly often!
Confused looks all round and frustration beginning to set in when out of the blue, Matt Bell managed to get himself in to the OG box and make it 3-1, smashing home the rebound after his initial shot was saved by the keeper.
With the goal, Player-Manager Rob Savage took the chance to swap the team round and moved Matt Bell back over to the left side, with Harry Butcher moving to the right and the energetic John O’Connor coming back in to the centre in an attempt to cut down the incredible amount of time that the OG midfielders were being given on the ball.
The changes seemed to work and Haddonfield began to get more of the ball, with O’Connor becoming an instrumental figure in every attack from the boys in blue. It was 3-2 not long after, with Matt Bell seizing on a defensive error and finishing well past the OG keeper.
Harry Butcher’s first start for the side came to an end in the 35th minute as he limped off to be replaced by Joe Tume, who hadn’t featured for the side since the 2nd game of the season due to a knee injury.
The confidence began to grow after the 2nd goal and it was 3-3 not long after, a great run from John O’Connor down the left ended with an inviting ball across the 6 yard box evading 4 OG defenders and being sidefooted home at the back post by Rob Savage.
3-3 at half time and momentum maybe just shifting towards Haddonfield.
The second half began with Haddonfield perhaps having a bit more possession without creating any clear chances and OG always looking to counter attack.
After a good 10-15 minute spell for the home side, they were 5-3 down in what seemed like the blink of an eye as 2 consecutive corners for Haddonfield somehow resulted in goals for OG.
The first goal came from a clearance being allowed to travel about 50 yards without being intercepted. As the ball bounced to slowly towards a Haddonfield player, it was miscontrolled – which, when you consider that it had no momentum and had almost stopped rolling, was quite marvellous in itself – and an OG player ran on to the ball before squaring it for an easy tap in.
The next goal came shortly and may have been the pick of the lot, as a John O’Connor corner from the right was cleared back to the Haddonfield half. The ball was rolled out to the right, where Joe Tume was stood in acres of space around the half way line. What happened next, only Joe himself will know, as he proceeded to turn back towards his own goal and play an inch perfect through ball to the OG striker, who again finished with minimal fuss to make it 5-3.
After this, Haddonfield’s woe’s continued, as Rob Savage was forced off with a hamstring injury, Stuart Lee was left practically unable to move and Joe Tume’s knee began troubling him again. Down to 10 – although it may well have been 8 – and OG capitalised, adding 2 more goals in the last 15 minutes.
Not much to add from Sunday, other than that we deserved everything we got. Of the 5 goals that I witnessed, we gave them 5 (I missed the final 2 while in a heap behind the goal)
In the last 4 or 5 weeks, we have had double figures at training once, which is a joke. You can point the finger at 2 or 3 players who’s sloppy errors gave away goals in this game, or you can admit that as a whole team, we looked sloppy, sluggish and funnily enough, like a side that doesn’t bother to train.
If we had more people turning up to training, we could work on trying out new formations, new roles for players and also we could work with the players who clearly aren’t at the same level as the rest of the squad, while maintaining a level of sharpness of our starting 11.
Sharpness comes in to it when you consider that two weeks in a row now we have given up early leads and – although we have come back from both of them to some extent – we can’t continue to do this.
November is going to be a very tough month for us, we face Sabanoh, who are top of the Prem and scoring for fun, before facing Eltham Phoenix ‘B’, who are also in the Prem and then finally Olympic Greenwich again.
Although we are welcoming back GJ, Brad, Adam and Luke, we also have to face the fact that Stuart won’t be with us much longer due to his knee and I’ll be missing for a couple of months (don’t cry too much lads)
We need every player pulling their weight. If we stick together and play to the best of our ability, we might even upset the odds at some point.
