With a solid squad on paper 2 hours before the kick off we pitched up with 12 men after Jay, Travis and Jake all pulled out shortly before the game!
The line up contained an injured Stew, Gary (been ut for 3 weeks), Fish (played once all season), Chris Bish and Joe Bibby (not played for months) so I knew it was going to be a struggle against a team that I know battle hard and especially in the wet, boggy and windy conditions.
Muffy was 'fashionably' late so Reece Dakin kindly took the flag for the the first half. Muffy got changed and then vanished into thin air (perhaps he fell down a worm hole).......
We started well with A long kick up field from Longy tha found it's way to Stew who drove with pace into the box, past 2 defenders that were rooted and slotted calmly past the keeper.... Cracking finish!
Then we had a flurry of chances, the best of which Fish stuck over the bar from 2 yards after Danny Aston drilled the ball across goal. Their keeper made 2 or 3 decent saves with various parts of hs body to keep us out. and then they created some chances of their own.
Longy was called into action and made a smart save down to his right and then leapt like a cat to make a solid left wristed save to keep the score 1-0.
We continued to dominate the half playing with the wind but just couldn't convert the dominance, possession and chances into goals...... Looks like we needed a striker to support Stew. We do depend on him a little too much. I don't mean that as a derogatory comment to the hard working Fish....
Second half and they tried to chip Longy fom the kick off but a smart reaction save parried for a corner. However, a fter coming to the near post when the corner came in, Longy could only clatter himself and the ball into the helpless Stempywho scored an OG to level up the game.
Their tales were up and as the deleted Millhouse who were desperate for a sub to freshen some legs up, started to fade, they took the game by the scruff of the neck.
Longy with some good shot stopping and distribution and some shuffling of the 11 players around it still wasn't enough when they came forward again and after another save made, the striker came through and poked the ball home to score what was to be the winner.
We had a goal chalked off as it wasn't over the line (I can't see from the other goal area but I have been informed it was well over).
The game finished and although we played better football and are a better team than them, they took the 3 points.
We had no subs, played a half with no linesman, had a goal ruled out so it was just one of those days!
We have let Unity and Portslade Athletic back in but our fate is still in our own hands! Come on Millhouse, don't let our season slip away into meaningless obscurity like we did last year when a result didn't go our way!
We are playing Portslade Althletic this week and I want a squad of 14 and every available their to support as it is the biggest game of the season so far!
Lets get back to winning ways and start making winning a habit again!
Longy
