The game today was played on a cool day with rain in the wind and on a pitch that could be described as bobbly if we are being generous.
The team all looked more up for the game right form the warm up today and we started well and didn’t give Ufford an easy time. The management had been warned about their behaviour before the game by the referee but I think the warning was issued mainly towards Lee as he is a foreigner and his accent is obviously intimidating.
Sax opened the scoring after some good play down the right starting at the back and Sam used his pace to get in behind the left back and lobbed the keeper who had rushed off his line. The home teams management were calling for offside but no flag went up and the goal stood. We carried on in the same way and were putting in strong challenges and also on the receiving end of some ourselves. Ufford had a good spell that resulted in a goal after a long ball went over the defence and was picked up by the captain who drilled a low shot past Jack that went just inside the post to make it 1-1. The next chance came again for Sax after some good play the ball went to Tom Wilson and he seemed to be through on goal when he was taken down, all eyes went to the ref who went to his pocket but decided that the free kick was enough. The free kick was taken but went just wide. Ufford had a chance to take the lead towards the end of the half but Jack was quick off his line to narrow the angle and make a good save to keep us at 1-1. Just before half time we took the lead again after some great play from the lads ended up with Tommy getting the ball and playing it wide to Wilson who powered down the left and delivered a ball into the box where Tommy had continued his run and shot with his right foot and put it past the keeper to make it 1-2 and take us into half-time with the lead.
2nd Half
We knew that Ufford would come at us with everything and so it was but the defence handled everything well for 20 minutes but the pressure did pay off for the home team when the ball again fell to the captain and he hit a long range shot that went through a crowd of players and had Jack unsighted. It went inside the post and made it 2-2. Sax didn’t let their heads drop and kept pressing for another goal and our pressure resulted in a shot from Kyle that was dropped by the keeper , Sam was on the follow up and after what seemed like an age he backheeled the ball in to give us the lead again. The lads were looking comfortable and were handling the Ufford attacks and we didn’t look too much like conceding, in the 85th minute Ufford won a corner and as the ball was played in the ref spotted something no-one else did and gave a penalty against us. The penalty was a good one and gave Jack no chance. The remainder of the game was pretty even and on 51 minute by my watch the whistle went to end the game.
It is another point for us and another 3 goals some good performances all over the pitch and hard to pick a MOM for a lot different reason from the last game. After much discussion in the car on the way home it was decided that Rory deserved the award but all the other players came close.
We have 2 home games now before the xmas break and this game should give us a bit of confidence going into those.
