It was a case of starting the New Year as we'd finished the old one with a third successive Cup defeat and we've also gone four games where we've lost after scoring first. A good first half performance was followed by a collapse under a 10 minute blitz by our opponents, who thumped in some really good goals to take the tie.
Line-up
Paige(GK)
Julian R(RB), Matt (CB), Simon (CB), Ollie (LB)
Kris (RM), JP (CM), Lee M (CM), Kyle (LM)
Scott (CF), Jon (CF)
We started off well enough as usual, although both sides saw a lot of the ball, neither made much of an impression upfront, with very few chances being created. Apart from the goal itself, the only serious effort on goal I can remember in the first half, was JP's smart drive from the edge of the area which the keeper did well to get to and palm away.
Regarding the first goal, I have to admit that I didn't actually see it, being away from the pitch at the time. The gist of it was that Kyle headed it up into the air and when it came down for Scott in the area, he turned and shot past the keeper.
Paige had to tip the ball over the bar on an occasion and the oppo did have a spell of pressure where they kept the ball switching in front of our defence as they probed for an opening but nothing came of it. We needed some last ditch tackling from JP to help keep the clean sheet, but we went into half time buoyed by the lead and feeling that we were winning the individual battles all over the pitch. The next goal was always going to be crucial - it's just unfortunate that we didn't get it.
Maypole came out of the blocks so much quicker than us at the restart and after a couple of early shots, they equalised with a ball coming over the top and being met with a first time shot on the half volley from well outside the area. Paige got fingertips to it, but he could only divert it fractionally into the top righthand corner. They took the lead soon after with virtually a tap in afterwards.
We couldn't get out of our own half and a third was added via another half volley this time from an acute angle outside the six yard area. We were on the ropes and it had started to get embarrassing all of a sudden. They got their fourth through a header over the corner, which definitely crossed the line, but the ref couldn't see it, so play continued for a short while. All credit to Adam for giving the goal as the linesman.
They could have had more, were it not for some great saves by Paige and last ditch blocks by our defence. Their last goal was another great effort, again from a corner, with the ball finding its way to the edge of the area from where it was then blasted right into the far corner with Paige given no chance whatsoever.
Ollie did pull one back for us with a great lob over the keeper from a fair distance, but it was one of only a couple of shots on target and we were never really in it from the start of the second half.
We have now shipped 17 goals in 3 cup games, 4 more than we have in 6 league games. It's a grim statistic and the fact that this latest defeat was to one of the two teams below us in the league is worrying. We play the other team next week and we desperately need a win to get some belief back in the team.
