It is currently 2:14 pm on Sunday. At this point yesterday I confidently expected to be sat here today waxing lyrical about a marvelous performance. Instead I have that hideous feeling of a knot the size of a pumpkin gives you at the pit of your stomach.
How did we contrive to lose that game?? In a nutshell, missed chances combined with a calamitous defensive display just about wraps it up; however, there was far more to it than that.
The opening 15 minutes of the game saw us settle well and move the ball about the pitch in good and confident fashion. All was looking good at this point. Completely out of the blue a defensive mistake let in their striker and to his credit he finshed his chance very well. Mistakes happen, it is how you recover from them that often decides the ultimate outcome. We 'recovered' by going 2 nil down a moment later following a lack of challenge at a corner.
Although we were now 2 down we continued to dominate the game and chances kept on being created. Liam created some good opportunites for himself and others with the only thing missing being the finish itself. The breakthrough came following a great ball by Logan and an even better finish by Jed; a superb strike which now put us firmly back into the game. Further chances followed and the important equaliser came moments before halftime where a fine ball by Logan released Jed on the right wing. Jed put across a lovely ball which was finished by Jack with his head at the far post. Phew!!! In at half time all square.
The 2nd half started in similar fashion with us dominating play and creating chances. A corner knocked over by Harvey was met by a Cameron header to finally put us in front and in a position where everybody expected us to pull away from our opponents. Unfortunately we continued to slip up and a mix up on the halfway line following us having comfortable possession again let in their striker who, to his credit, finished in style from just outside of our penalty area. As we continued to press, so we continued to be slack as a defensive unit and their winning goal followed yet more mistakes from ourselves; again the finish was top class. We created another good chance in the final minutes when Ryan got onto a fine through ball but their keeper pulled off a crucial save for his team.
All of the players were gutted and it is very disappointing to throw away 3 points in this fashion. However, there are some positives to take from the game together with very valid points to remember and work on going forward. We controlled the game for very long spells and had some quality possession. The lads will remember the feeling that they had at the end of the game and will now know that nothing less than full effort as a team will produce the results we desire. Keeping the compact shape that is essential off the ball is a must and we will work hard on this over the next week or so. Hopefully all of the boys can use this result to drive us forward.
