The overnight rain had died away leaving a wet pitch with a muddy surface in the goal areas. The wind had increased and was just about blowing into our faces in the first half. We had a great chance to take an early lead when Simon burst through the defence and passed it square to Cory who was unmarked but unable to keep his shot down. However it was Racecourse who went in front on just 5 minutes. A throw to a player on the corner of the box and he was allowed to curl a shot on goal, Adam got a hand to it but couldn’t prevent it reaching the corner of the net. The high wind was causing a lot of problems for us as the match ball was very light. Any ball in the air would carry with the slightest gust or just drop out of the air if there was no gust. You just couldn’t predict it. As it came down it weaved all over the place making it almost impossible to get a head on the thing!
On 10 minutes Racecourse doubled their advantage. A ball over the top was chased down and a shot came in from about 8 yards out, Adam made a great block save but the ball went back to a Racecourse player. All of our players looked to each other to close him down, so nobody did and he stuck it in the net. We had started with a 3-4-1-2 formation but at 2-0 down so early we changed to 4-4-2, Jack was having a nightmare of a game and we needed to sure things up.
So with Brad back at centre back and Foxy dropping to centre midfield, we looked to get back into the game. With 16 minutes on the clock we did just that, Chris won the ball with a great tackle tracking back towards halfway, turned and slotted a pass right through Racecourse to find Cory running in to the area. He took the ball in his stride, rounded the keeper and struck it past the chasing defenders into the net. That’s how it stayed until half-time, an average performance at best being made worse by the ball’s unpredictable behaviour.
The second half saw Chiv on at right back for Jack and was just 3 minutes old when Racecourse were in with a chance of increasing their lead, it took a brave save from Adam diving in at the forwards feet to rob him of that chance. At the other end on 47 minutes Simon’s corner was cleared back to him, his 2nd cross was superb, picking out Ollie in the six-yard box, who prodded the ball between goalie and defender to tie the game at 2-2.
On the hour mark, Dom’s throw found Foxy behind the defence. He curled a brilliant shot around the advancing keeper but it just didn’t curl enough and went beyond the far post by a couple of inches. Manor were in the ascendency and the Racecourse keeper had to make a couple of great saves to prevent us going ahead. But 5 minutes after the equaliser we went behind again. Ryan chased a through ball and came shoulder to shoulder with their forward; as they reached the ball Ryan used his strength to fairly barge his opponent off the ball. The forward went down rather easily and the ref gave the penalty. A very harsh decision and the spot-kick was fired home.
The Manor players kept themselves together and just 3 minutes later were level again. Wraggy lofted a long ball out to the right and Raffy gave chase. He got their ahead of the full back and put a high cross in. This was when the light ball and gusting wind worked for us as the ball drifted over everyone in to the top corner at the far post.
Both teams had chances to grab a winner but with good saves and last-ditch tackles, neither side did.
Man of the match was Wraggy. He took charge when he was moved back but there were also good performances from Foxy, Simon and as usual Dom, Moo impressed up front and managed a full game for the first time this season. Once again it was a game we should have won, could have lost and have to be content with the draw. The return match is next week...let’s see if we can win that one.
