What more can be said about squandering a lead in the final few minutes of a match? Our league is so close that had we kept our heads and the ball in the closing stages then we would be sitting comfortably in 3rd place. Unfortunately on too many occassions this season we have lost points in the dying moments; we have lost a lead, sometimes a 2 goal lead, in the last 5 minutes of matches on 6 occassions this season!
The match itself was a hard game mainly because of the summer like heat and the rock hard surface that we played on. Any bounce on the ball made it very hard to control and the ball bobbled about all over the place. However, as ever with these things, both sides have to play on the same surface.
The game started slowly with Hamptonians holding on to the ball better, but at the same time over complicating matters in defence, which allowed us to pressure them into mistakes at the back. There were few clear cut opportunities early on with most shots being taken on from outside the box. Hamptonians themselves had little attacking threat as the defence was dealing well with whatever was thrown at them.
Meads were getting into good positions in attack but the final delivery was always a little bit off, but simple movement was shifting their defence all over the place. The opening goal came when a nice delivery into the box from a Dan corner was met by the head of George. His goalbound header was a nice effort but it surprised everyone when the keeper let it slip through his hands and into the goal. 1-0.
Half time came and we knew that if we kept this lead we had a chance of leapfrogging our opposition come the end of the season. Jake's goal continued to be a rare place for the ball to be anywhere near as the back four were dealing with anything that came at them. Chad, a new recruit from training was performing very well alongside Jonathan. Even when Hamptonians did get through they found Jake in good form.
Jake made 3 saves in a short space of time that kept the lead in tact; first was a well struck half volley that was parried away, followed by a nice save to his right from a strike from the right hand side. The other one escapes me.
Finally though a goal came when possession was lost up the pitch and Hamptonians broke. As the ball ricocheted around it fell to their right back as he entered the box and he smashed the ball home with a well struck half volley.
Meads took the lead again almost immediately when a rather dodgy call by the ref allowed play to continue after calls for offside. Dan latched on to the ball and as the keeper rushed out towards him he poked the ball past him and then put the ball into the empty net.
With time running out Meads were the dominant team overall. Creating better openings than Hamptonians the game could well have been over with 15 minutes to go; Dan had a header hit the post after a nice delivery from Kev and George was through but his touch was a little heavy and the keeper flattened him.
Unfortunately with 90 seconds left possession was lost (you can see a trend here!!), and Hamptonians played the ball up top. An unfortunate bobble took the ball past Chad and thier midfielder turned and hit a thunderous strike from the edge of the box into the near top corner. Another day and it would have ended up in the allottments but we should not have been put in that situation in the first place.
MOM went to Dave for his commitment in midfield and his ability to make openings for himself and the rest of the team, although the votes this week were spread about on record levels with 8 players recieving votes. Its a shame that we dont occupy the higher levels of the league as we are capable of doing so but we need to, though its a bit late now, retain possession better and sometimes bear in mind that we dont need to score all the time when we are leading, simply control possession of the ball and stay closer together when we are defending as a team.
