Another lead was squandered on Saturday when an unbeaten Birkbeck left with their record in tact. At half time Old Meads were leading 2-1 after two great solo goals from Joe Willis and Damien Redding. The problem was that this gave a gloss to the game that perhaps we did not deserve. With Matt and George finding it hard to get into the game, chances were few and far between and there was little attacking threat. However, Kev and Damo were playing well in the middle and Joe was a threat down the left hand side.
The game started well enough with possession being retained and some general solid work all around the pitch. There were few real clear cut chances in the first half with George going close with a curled shot from outside the box and Joe hitting a shot wide from an angle. The defence was coping weell enough with their striker, who was a complete twat and Jake was relatively untested in the early exchanges.
With the defenders we have in our team we have quality in abundance but unfortunately not an abundance of pace. At times on Saturday our line was too high and Birkbeck were exploiting that with a consistent bombardment of balls over the top. In fairness to them this was a tactic that we should have used a lot more of as the pitch was not one to write home about. It seemed inevitbale that eventually one of these balls would find its target and it did in about the 20th minute when their striker broke free, rode the challenge of Jake as he came out his goal and rolled the ball in to the empty net, although he nearly missed with the ball bouncing in off the post.
Meads responded quickly when Damo threw the ball to Joe who proceeded to turn and run at Birkbeck. Having picked the ball up in his own half he ran down the line before cutting across the back line. Riding the challenges he hit a snap shot from the edge of the box, which found the keeper unaware and his shot went nicely into the corner. Meads took the lead shortly after when some build up play resulted in Damo picking up the ball on the edge of the area. From 20yards he let fly and his precise shot sailed over the keeper and into the far top corner, 2-1.
Birkbeck struck the bar twice before half time, once from a long range effort and one from close in that I think Jake made a very good save in tapping it on to the bar. Going in at half time 2-1 up having improved a lot on our previous weeks performance.
The second half was a different story. A big difference was that Eric had been forced off through injury and the re shuffled defence saw Dave take up a central role, one he asked afterwards to never be played in again. We never got going in the second half and we did not turn their defence once. The balls being played in to the middle were being lost when Birkbeck increased the pressure on us all and George was being starved up top. They scored the equaliser from a hard cross that was tapped in at the far post and then took the lead from a set piece with about 25 to go.
We never looked like recovering the game to be honest. A bit of confusion in the Birkbeck defence allowed Matt to nip in between GK and defender and when he was taken down by the keeper the ref waved away appeals. Birkbeck accused him of diving, the ref said keeper played the ball and the GK apologised for kicking his ankle. Either way the whistle shy ref played on. He was to be castigated further when Mikey D saw his rocket of a shot come off the underside of the bar and cross the line and bounce out. Everyone looks at the ref...still looking at the ref...still looking...some players are actually still at Riverside waiting for the decision.
Needless to say the ref did not give the goal and the game ended 3-2 Birkbeck. It was not a disastrous result by any stretch but we are capable of so much more and it is horrible to think what might have been when we look at some of the teams in our league and their positions. A lack of experience and football nous I think have cost us points this season, one look at the amount of leads/points squandered tells you that but we move on to a cup semi final next week with a sense of optimism and belief that we can at least make the final.
Team: J Sieroncinksi, D Ryan, E Paice (P Forrest), J Sellars, A Sellars, K Hilne, M Wolfe, D Redding, C Sichel (M Dermott), J Willis, G Mayou.
