This was the quarter-finals of the Frank Jones Cup with high hopes of progressing to the semi-finals. Then you get to the ground and there are sandwich boxes in the goal mouth and the grass is as long as the everglades. Then you get to the changing rooms that are not open but maybe thats for the best. Then you find out that a groundsman may open the door if he has a key.
The preparation due to delays mean't it was dis-organised again which was the last thing a clearly dejected team from last weeks result needed. But then again we were playing on the Roundshaw estate.
The game started well for Boro with some good passages of play which led to a couple of half chances. The pressure was on Roundshaw and did not really let up for the entire half with Kingsboro having around 6 corners in the first half. There was only one scare when a cross from the left flashed across goal and Paul Hooper managed to shield the on running player of Roundshaw from getting a touch which would have surely have been a goal. The only question for myself by the end of the first half was how have we not scored.
The second half started much the same with a constant barrage of pressure from us but there seemed to be a problem with finishing off good moves in the final third. This by no means is to say that Ross and Simon are in anyway to blame as there is a clear gap between midfield and the front two which causes me great concern. In this half constant corners kept comming and going and as time ticked on Boro needed to score soon before heads dropped and we made a mistake as the opposistion took their one chance in the game.
This came with about half hour remaining with myself seeing Paul Hooper out of position and telling him to get further back to win a header from a throw in. This wasn not done and the ball went straight over Paul to a Roundshaw player who then managed to loop a ball that Adam Chandler misjudged and the opposistion were and in went the goal through the legs of Ian Humphries.
This led to Kingsboro then hitting the bar from Ryan Butt aswell as golden opportunities falling to Simon Wright and then Ross who chose to round the keeper when clean through but went a little to wide to get the finish his hard work deserved. This led to a frantic last ten minutes in which i put Ian Rugg up-front in order to accomodate the front two with some flick-on's as i had asked for balls to be hit long with now playing a 3-4-3. This did not happen and even up to the last minute when Ian Humphries picked a ball up instead of lumping it up field it was rolled out to Tunes at full back. GAME OVER!!!
This was a very disappointing result and Boro clearly seem very dejected and lack self confidence right now. But there are plus points as Joe was back and was excellent on the left of midfield by running himself into the ground for the cause. There will be changes next week in order to help the forwards regain the excellent form shown earlier this season.
