Well, what a night… I honestly do not know what to say. The Revs, at times, are their own worst enemies – especially against new opposition.
Let’s be blunt, they had one decent player and one good player – their decent player was the one that caused the damage. They also played to their strengths using their big man to lever his way into our defence and cause problems. However, The Revs should have secured victory. Were they better than us? No way… We beat ourselves last night and the harmony in the squad was not what it should be. Saying all that we came damn close to nicking a point and having our main marksmen back proved an injection that was needed in front of goal with H chiming in with a goal and two assists. But as one door opens, another closes and with barely 10 minutes on the clock, at 0-0, Myers suffered a horror injury out of nowhere!
Acting as a sweeper keeper Myers came out to clear a simple ball and under a little closing down pressure went over on his ankle. The result is a plate and pins for a fractured ankle and tibia… OUCH!
Steane donned the gloves but The Revs were all at sea at this point. However, H kept his head after a punt up field was miss-controlled by a defender under pressure from Ty and H gobbled up the loose ball. He was forced wider than he would have liked, but he coolly slotted home from the angle putting The Revs 1 up!
The opposition weren’t happy and they had a few moaning moments – although The Revs could certainly compete in those stakes last night.
Not long before the break Phil gave away a free-kick – I say gave away but in reality the ref was conned by their big lad and their decent player’s eyes lit up as he stroked the ball home from the resultant free-kick.
Heads seemed to go down and at the break the post-mortem was not good. The opposition came out the brighter and hungrier of the two teams and soon scored a second. A third was not far behind as they smelt blood. James found himself isolated with a 2-on-1 situation and as the ball was lofted over the top he instinctively put his hands up stopping the ball. The ref, on this occasion, was lenient to a degree and only sent him to the sinbin. It could have been worse.
James: “I know I apologised last night, but let me go on record as I say sorry once again…”
The Revs kept the ball away from the opposition for the majority of the two minutes, but just before James was allowed back on they scored to make it 3-1. It was unlucky as Phil had blocked the initial shot on the line before the ball cruelly fell to the on-rushing attacker to sweep home.
James entered the fray and made himself busy knowing he’d let his team down. Hartrick broke free down the flank after great work from Phil and squared to James in the middle. Now he had far too much time to think about things and usually totally messes up in these situations, but on this occasion the keeper stood on the line, motionless and allowed James a free hit… 3-2 and The Revs, even though they had played poorly, were back in the game.
Looking for that equaliser The Revs had chances with Ty crashing over from 5 yards out after sterling work on the by-line from Lewis, but you sensed a goal was coming.
However, the opposition, in a now rare attack bombed forward and James managed a block at the near post for a corner. From the corner the ball was whipped in and the opposition stormed the penalty area, throwing bodies in the direction of the ball. Matty got half a hand to it, but the rebound fell very kindly for their youngest player to sweep in even as Phil clothes lined him!
The Revs finally found their rhythm and battled to get back into the game. They pinned the opposition in their half and a clever flick from H once again put James in to sweep in with his left foot to bring it back to 4-3 to Titus.
The opposition tried another fleeting attack to catch us on the back foot, but by this time Lew was in no mood to take prisoners and put in a huge shoulder barge to prevent a further attack. In fact I think the poor lad is still sliding on his arse somewhere!
The pressure continued and Ty and Lew both had shots blocked as the opposition tried in vain to stop the now impending equaliser. They were the team that was now all at sea.
Matty chimed into the attack such was the dominance. The Revs worked the angles but could not get a break through. The ball was half cleared and under pressure Phil lost the ball and their decent player shot from his own half.
The ball seemed to take an age as it rolled up towards the open goal – everyone stood and stared – like a John Woo film going in slo-mo (we were just missing the doves flying across the scene). Eventually the ball hit the post, rolled along the line and nestled in the corner of the pitch… it was then the ref blew the whistle.
A far from vintage performance and a hard to swallow loss that also cost us our keeper. A very bad night at the office and the display also threatened to break the team spirit. We shall dust ourselves off and go again though… Next time we shall be better and we shall beat Titus FC.
And at the beginning of this I said I didn’t know what to say!! I will end with the well wishes from all at The Revs for our number 1 keeper.
GET WELL SOON OLLIE!!!
