Our first game of the new season very nearly saw us continuing where we left off from the last and we came agonisingly close to snatching a draw against a quality team. In the end however, we were outdone by poor defensive discipline and a referee who ignored a blatant offside for the winning goal.
Line up:
Phil (GK)
Adam (RB), Simon (CB), Matt R (CB), Kyle (LB)
Dale (CM), Lee (CM), JP (CM)
Nathan (RF), Scott (CF), Gary (LF)
The Lions splashed the cash this summer on a nice shiny red Nike kit - floppy collars and all and so new we had to take the labels off. The other debutant on the day were our opponents. They were only new to the League though as it was painfully obvious that they were a very accomplished team. They moved the ball very well and always seemed to be first to the loose ball, winning the first and second ball from teh goal kicks and generally managing to play us out of the game for the first half.
That said, there wasn't much in the way of chances for either side during the first 15 minutes or so. I think there was only the one shot for either side, both of which went well over the respective bars. Their first goal came from a cross which I thought I had covered, but somehow the ball didn't reach me and the next thing I knew, the ball was being tapped into an empty net from a yard. We equalised soon afterwards though: we managed to pressure their defence into losing possession in their own half then moving the ball to Gary who finished emphatically past the keeper.
Unfortunately we then conceded almost from the restart when their striker found himself being played onside with no-one near him as he gathered a through ball. Closed him down and he went for lob and though the ball brushed my outstretched hand it didn't deflect enough to prevent their second goal.
We had a few good chances to equalise through Gary who almost squeezed a shot through the keeper's legs and Nathan who sent a shot just wide. At the other end, the oppo were looking dangerous whenever they got near our goal (mainly because we weren't great at clearing our lines) without actually getting any shots away. They did get their third though and again it was a bit of a gift. JP brought one of their guys down with tackle deemed worthy of a booking from the frustratingly inconsistent ref. The resultant kick found one of their guys on our left who controlled the ball with a great first touch before finding the top far corner of the net.
Half-time brought to an end a lousy first 45 minutes of the season and after a short sharp team talk we were out early, determined to get back into the game. I It was a real kick in the teeth then that the second half got off to the worst possible start with every goalie's nightmare coming true - being lobbed from the kick off. To be fair it wasn't so much a lob as a belter of a strike that was over me before I realised that it was low enough and straight enough to go in. ****ing short pitches.
The Lions were a little stunned by this but we came alive in the second half and started to battle much harder than we did in the first. We rode our luck at times, with the oppo getting more shots on target and Matt making a brilliant last ditch tackle when their striker had rounded me. We were passing the ball better though and we got our reward for the shift up in tempo with three goals in the space of five minutes.
First Nathan found the net with a great run inside and finish into the far top corner from the left. Then Gary did the same from the right beating the keeper low at his near post. Then less than minute later we were level when Nathan agasin found the net.
The oppo, who had been having a great laugh up to this point were suddenly shouting and arguing with each other and the game had definietly swung our way. We hada couple more chances to take the game, but the final word went to the ref who ignored Scott's upraised flag on the sideline when the ball found an oppo played in the middle of the penalty area blatantly offside. He slipped the ball past me into the bottom corner and despite lenghty protestations from us, the ref refused to budge from his overruling of our lino's flag saying that the palyer wasn't offside when the ball was played. It was a bit hard to take, because as good as the oppo were, we didn't actually play that well and we still came within a hair of snatching a draw after being 4-1 down.
Still it's only the first game out of 24 (weather-permitting) so it's a long old road yet.
