Rockbourne had been smashing teams for fun this season, so i realized that we would have to runa real tigh ship in this game hence why the system was 4-5-1.
We started the game very well, Richy was back and his appearance was welcome as he added that extra tenacious tackling and energy into the heart of midfield. Barry was also looking to get forward and support Olly at every chance. We were looking solid and threatening going forward with some smart passing. Then against the run of play their striker turned and struck in the top corner from 30 yards. This was a blow and we seemed to be shocked and were on the back foot for the next five minutes, which saw Jock pull a point blank stop, only to injure his hand again.
This was a big loss when we were going well, Les stepped up and did a great job considering he had his work cut out in centre back. Barry dropped back to centre back with the impressive Army, whilst Army stepped into the right mifield berth which was vacated by Crapper who dropped into Barrys role phewwwwww, who says The Pottery United formation is not a complex thing.
We always seem to play better against better opposition and today was no exception, Richy, Moi had room in the centre and were putting in Chrispy with ease, our only problem was that we were slightly guilty of not closing the gap between Olly and the midfield quick enough.
After a series of corners, and throw ins the equaliser came, a throw in form the left was flicked on to olly who assisted fro Richy to slam a right foot shot from 4 yards, it was deserved and Richy's celebration showed. After this we took the option of shooting on site a little early, i felt we were getting good ball to our full backs who were finding gaps beyond there full backs. After one shot we should have went 2-1 up, however the ONCE prolific Olly failed to score an open goal, shall we move on....
To be fair to our opposition, they had a couple of really good chances to take the lead themselves, however some Brilliant defending from not just the back four but also the midfield denied them. I was particularly impressed with Shane and Army at the back, time after time they doubled up on their danger man up front to frustrate him.
Half Time 1-1, fair score. The second half was more of a dig in and get what you can display from both teams. The pitch was starting to get heavier and the passing was suffering as a result. They had more of the play second half and in spells we had to repeatedly defend those monstrous throw ins, which always seemed to cause problems.
Matty came on for Chrispy and gave us presence in the air, however i think we failed to utilise him as much as we should have. Other than one half chance for Olly we did not have any clear cut chances.
It finished 1-1 and even though we were under the Kush in the second half i think we deserved the result. Well done to everyone, including Christer and Canham who also played their part
