Old Meadonians IV's Vs Brent: L 0-4
Where to start? It was the first time that the 4's have failed to score in a match and it also ended a good run of results. I never imagined getting beaten by a team 4-0, let alone a weak Brent team who lie 2nd from bottom in the league. One look at results show that we struggle against the weaker teams, why? Because we cannot deal with the long ball. When a team plays direct against we struggle big time.
Saturday was one of those days...a host of missed chances, a lack of composure when on the ball and fragility in defence. We were missing some players but at the same time had easily enough quality to win the game. However, some of the apocalyptic conclusions are premature, there is still plenty of time to move up the table into a respectable position and there is a cup semi final on the horizon.
Saturday actually started well, and after 10 minutes we were presented with a great opportunity, unfortunately it was not taken. Neil rounded the keeper but could not quite get it past the defender and the ball then rebounded to Sam who's shot was blocked by the defender on the line. For some reason, we reacted to this very badly, acting as though we had conceded rather than missed a chance and our football went down the drain. Soon after a sloppy goal was conceded and we were down in the dumps, 1-0. There was no reason for this as we had scored in every game this season and were always capable of creating chances. We did not recover in the first half and the silence on the pitch was all to evident.
A reminder of our capabilities was talked about at half time and also the need to be a bit more pro active, getting in to the game and running it rather than waiting for things to happen. The referee had demanded that linesman were provided for the game, which I think only brings problems as unfortunately players never trust the linesman. A barrage of inuslts flew about when their pacy striker was consistently found offside, his laziness was of course not the reason for his constant infringements.
The 2nd half began terribly, once again a long ball was flagged offside but this time the referee dismissed the flag; our central defence stopped having seen the flag and their striker raced through to get his second of the game. Even if there was some inconsistency in the decision making our defence should have abode by the age old footballing rule, play to the whistle.
We started to play well with about 25 minutes to go, both Charlie and Dave going close and Sam was coming back into the game. The 3rd was conceded when a breakaway down the right resulted in their winger spotting Jake coming off his line early and he struck an opportunistic strike at the near post. However, a positive to take out of it was that we continued to play and we were getting chances. With about 5 minutes to go and a 4th and hatrick for their striker when a fortuitous bounce fell to his feet and he lifted it cooly over Jake to cap off a horrendous day.
We must spare a thought for Foz who got smashed in the mouth and was forced off with a ghastly cut inside his lip at HT (he was later to sit in Hillingdon hospital to get it seen, I think stitches was the result) he then realised he had lost his ipod at the ground and he couldn't go away for the weekend as a result of the hospital visit. what a day! Thanks to Ash for dismissing his broken nose and impending operation to come along and be a sub for the day, things could have been hellishly worse.
The quicker we forget about Saturday the better, we can learn a lot from it but can not dwell on it. Next week comes a big test against an unbeaten Birkbeck, knowing us we will go and beat them comfortably.
MOM was split decsion between Dave Hough in middle and Sam out wide. Both continued to play to try and salvage something from a bad day and showed a spirit that will help us in future weeks. Heads up, nothings over yet.
Team: J Sierocinksi, E Paice, J Sellars, A Sellars, P Forrest (A Hamidi), K Hilne, M Wolfe, D Hough, C Sichel, S Morson, N Cooper
