A very disappointing day for us Royals today but I will say that this is the only performance of this season to feel a little upset by. In our first defeat we at least showed spirit and desire but today that was sadly lacking. Yes we had taken a 3-1 lead into the break but for large parts we had been second best to an opponent whose game plan was to smash the ball forward at every opportunity. The Grendon Rangers defenders simply bypassed their own midfield in order to hit us on the break and they did this very well especially when they were chasing the game in the second half. The home side scored on their first attack with some speedy wing play and a fine cross that caught our back line napping. Our response was good and we forced Grendon into some desperate defending with nice passes and good movement we deservedly drew level a quite brilliant freekick scored by George. Ned , Joe and Lewis were having plenty of success down the right flank delivering some great crosses into the box but it wasn't until Thomas Young got on the end of Georges deep corner that we showed any desire to make them pay. Grendons midfield then began to dominate as our efforts tailed off and we had to survive several close calls and two good saves from Isaac to keep us in front. Against the run of play we managed to extend our lead, Ollie won the loose ball in the centre circle and played a good ball up to Tyler. Tyler then spun the ball into Georges path who cut inside his marker and beat the keeper with a deflected effort. This goal disguised the fact that we had been largely under-performing for much of the opening half.
Our lacklustre show continued after the break right from the kickoff we gifted Grendon the ball and you could sense our nervousness was growing. All our good work this season seemed to be forgotten as we tried to match the homesides style of hammering the ball from box to box. This is not our usual game and it starved Youngy and Ned of any ball to trouble our opponents. Both George and Tyler were seeing less and less of the play as our clearances were being pounced on by the hungrier side. Joe Berry to his credit got stuck in at the back and still tried to play his way out of trouble whenever he could . We were penalised in the box for a slight shove and fortunately for us the Grendon player shot wide but we did not heed this warning and a goal still duely arrived within moments of this miss. We were now completely on the rack but still we kept giving the ball away when our wide men were left screaming out on the flanks just to be given the ball. Another innocuous challenged cost us another penalty a dangling leg was all the striker needed to throw himself to the floor when a solid tackle would surely have cleared the danger.This time Grendon made no mistake with the spotkick. A short spell of pressure from us looked like maybe we could still finish up on the winning side but the home defence prooved too strong and the final goal of the day went to the quick thinking home side. More dozy defence play let Grendon take a short corner from where the winger curled his cross right in to our unguarded far post.
Please lads let's not dwell on this performance as I say it has been the one and only time that we have not played to the best of our ability. Our season so far has been amazing and your commitment on the whole has been fantastic. It just goes to show us all that only the best will do in this tough A League. Thanks must go to Alex again as for the second time this season I was unable to get you out on the pitch for your usual run out. So chins up everyone thats our bad day out of the way let's make amends next time out.
