The Lions missed out on reaching our first ever final after losing out in this top of the table cup tie. An awful bobbly pitch and a lack of match practice shouldn't detract from the simple fact that Newdigate were just too strong for us in the second half. We were left to rue a crucial couple of minutes when we missed a penalty to equalise at 2-2 then conceded the killer third from our own corner.
Line-up:
Paige (GK)
Richard (RB), Simon (CB), Matt (CB), Ollie (LB)
Lee (CM), Dale (CM), Nathan (CM)
Gregg ( RF), Scott (CF), Gary (LF)
After an awful March weather-wise when we only managed one game out of four, we were sorely lacking in match fitness and practise and the rubbish pitch didn't help our cause. We still made a good start though, carving out some good openings. It was a tough match from the start and throughout as both teams battled physically and pressured the ball. We just had trouble connecting our passes with conviction due to the random bounces of the ball. There was nothing wrong with the passing for our goal though. We pressured the oppo into giving up possession on our left near the halfway line and worked the ball down the left until Dale threaded the ball through to the Scott going in on goal. He coolly tapped it through the keeper's legs to give us the lead.
They had a shot come off the post and Matt made a great interception to deny a shot. Both sides had chances to add to the score but we reached half-time a goal to the good and satisfied with a good half against the current division leaders.
The oppo really took it to us after the break and their first goal was down to the sheer strength and persistence of their big Welsh forward who brushed off tackles from Rich and Matt to get to the byline and centre the ball for his mate to tap in from a couple of yards. They then went two up when the same big guy got on the end of a ball over the top and finished it past Paige.
We then got a penalty when one of the oppo blatantly handballed in the area from a corner. For some reason, there was a reluctance among the players to take the kick, until Nathan stepped up to take the responsibility of levelling things up. His spot-kick was placed towards the corner but it just didn't have enough on it to get past the keeper who had gone the right way and pushed it out for a corner. Corner came in, cleared by the oppo and incredibly, Si found himself alone on the halfway line with 3 attackers coming at him. They got it to the big Welsh guy, who held off the Gary - who had put in a magnificent gut-busting sprint back to challenge him - and he once again put his shot past Paige.
They had a 25 yard volley come crashing off the bar, we put a few shots wide. Towards the end, we were getting frustrated with their time-wasting and rolling around in apparent agony after tackles. The ref actually played 51 minutes for the second half because of all this, but it still wasn't time for us to find even one more goal to get our hopes up.
In the end we just didn't have enough and the better team won on the day. We still have the League to fight for though and two full matches to play against this team. Vengeance will be ours.
