Last week’s victory brought some long overdue relief and joy to Incepcion and we we hoping to build on several outstanding performances from there. We faced another of our regular opponents, Faces, this week. Amazingly, our record against them has never been good. So we hoped that this time things will be different.
Probably due to the late arrival of several of our players, we couldn’t do proper warm up and team talk. It told as we were slower to the ball but we soon got into the game. In the 11th minute, Harold put in a delicious cross which Colin made no mistake with his header. But that was probably his best contribution in the game. After that, we were pegged back by the hardworking opponents and couldn’t deal with them. A long ball over the top wasn’t dealt with properly and Joe was adjudged to have fouled the striker in the box. A penalty was given and their goalkeeper made no mistake from the spot. Immediately after kick-off, we stormed into their half and Andy passed short to Pikachu who finished easily into an empty net. Good response from the team. We continued to work the ball through Max but couldn’t make our chances count. We lost a last ditch tackle in the middle and their midfielder calmly finished it in the bottom right corner. Half time 2-2.
Half time talk was all about making things simpler and keeping the ball better. The team got a rollicking from me as I wasn’t pleased with the effort shown. We tried to do difficult things and relied too much on Max and Andy. Move around and work for each other.
The team got into the groove from the off. Alas, it wasn’t our day. Harold got the ball in midfield and lashed a powerful shot in goal. It’s going in! Then it hit the crossbar. The rebound fell to Colin. And with the bouncing ball, he couldn’t direct it back to the empty net. More chances were created. Harold got fouled when through on goal but the referee didn’t think it was a foul. Another foul on the edge of the box saw Dave shooting the free-kick against the wall. Colin then had 2 more chances to score but he missed. One notable one was when he was through one on one and he totally miscued his shot wide. Harold also had another shot hit the crossbar later on. It seemed like he’s doing the crossbar challenge today. In between, Faces scored a goal at the near post following some nice build up play from them. We keep pressing forward as we searched for the equaliser. This was really when everyone pushed each other hard and worked their socks off. The hard work of Andy finally paid off as his charge into the box was met hideously with a terrible challenge from the goalkeeper. A penalty was awarded. Captain of the day stepped up and was duly distracted by the goalkeeper insistence that the ball be right on the spot. Because of that, Colin didn’t connect properly and the kick was saved. Definitely not the best game for Colin. Worse still, as Andy’s injury was serious enough to have to go to hospital for a check. The final whistle came and we suffered another defeat at their hands again.
Another game to forget as we couldn’t make our chances count. Let’s work harder the next game. We wish Andy a speedy recovery.
