A game in which the teams couldn't be separated after the first half, turned on a controversial refereeing decision early in the second, to leave the Lions facing an ultimately insurmountable battle with 10 men against the Senior Challenge Cup holders. It's safe to say that the sending off cost the Lions a fighting chance to avenge last season's semi-final defeat but plenty of players on both sides were unimpressed with the referee's performance.
We had been beaten 6-1 by this team in the opening game of last season and then narrowly lost 1-0 to them in the semi-final of the Junior Oak Cup. So we were more than up for this game, determined to show that we'd progressed enough from last season to get a result out of this tie.
Unfortunately, we were again short on squad numbers in the week building up to the game and then our goalie Paul failed to turned up due to oversleeptitis, so your Webmaster had to don the gloves. Not an ideal start against a team who pretty much won everything going last season but we still had a decent team that was capable of getting us through to the next round.
The first half was a tight affair, with Wheatsheaf dominating possession as was to be expected and spending too much time for comfort in our half. With a strong wind behind them, their goal kicks were bouncing not too far from our area and a couple of times our goalie had to rush out and clear from the edge of the box (Get used to our goalie being mentioned quite a bit!). Wheatsheaf got themselves plenty of corners and had 4 or 5 free headers from the edge of the 6 yard area but couldn't get any of them on target.
In fact for all their possession and significant threat going forward, they didn't actually have a shot to trouble our goalie. This owed as much to some great defending by Nath, Ahmed and Ed as it did to the oppo's wayward shooting. Nath in particular did well to clear a ball bouncing towards the goal that our goalie completely missed as he rushed out.
At the other end, Max and Ben caused some problems and had a couple of really good chances. I think it was Max who made a great mazy run, from the left across the box but his final shot was just wide. Towards the end of the half, though, it was definitely Wheatsheaf on top and they had at least 4 corners in a row, all whipped in but all well-defended. In the end, we were more than happy to see the half out with a clean-sheet.
At this stage, should mention that the ref had warned us before the game that he would not tolerate any swearing at him or other players., saying that he would issue a straight red. If he'd followed that statement to the letter in the first half, there would probably have been 3 players sent off from each side with all the language being directed between the teams, but he took no action against anyone. There were also some tasty challenges that got blown up for fouls but again nothing further. The game was finely poised and was developing nicely, but unfortunately for use, that was as good as it got.
Within a minute of the restart, Chris went in for a challenge, got the ball but took some of the man as well. Ref blew for a foul, an incredulous Chris asked if he was joking with that adverb that starts with "f" and the ref sent him off. It left everybody a bit stunned, Chris, understandably a bit upset, but more to the point us with 10-men to play pretty much the entire second half. The ref seemed to have gone from not doing much to stamping his authority on the game with a sledgehammer and in the process ruined what had been developing into a very good match.
Not surprisingly, Wheatsheaf got numbers forward and a punt into our area saw their big number 9 jumping up for the header, sandwiched between Nath and Ed. Straight away the ref blew for a push by Ed that he must have done very well to see and gave the penalty to add to our great second half-start.
After more earnest discussions between our players and the ref, our goalie faced up to the spot-kick, guessed right, but didn't have the stretch to get to the low shot into the left hand corner and with pretty much their first actual shot on goal, Wheatsheaf were ahead. Some loose defending was to blame for the second as again their number 9 had far too much space to meet a cross from our left, this time with a very well placed header squeezed low between post and goalie to put them two up.
We were under the cosh but we had another great chance when their goalie miscued a clearance straight to Max but he couldn't get his shot away before he was closed down. Then Ben went on a great run down the left, got to the byline and had Nath up from the back looking for the cut-back. Ben went for goal though and was unable to keep his shot under the bar, leaving us all frustrated at another opportunity to get back into the game not being taken.
Very shortly after that, we were 3-0 down. I think some of our players thought that a throw-in should have gone our way and whilst we were arguing about it, Wheatsheaf got on with it and despite one shot being saved, their player had another pop from point blank range which smashed through our goalie's hand into the roof of the net.
I think our heads went down a bit after that but a great bit of persistent play from Harry got us back into the game. A long punt from the goalie rode the wind and bounced near their area. Harry didn't win the first ball, but put enough pressure on their centre back to win it off him. He then showed skill and strength to evade the other defender and finally coolness to smash a rising shot past the keeper off the underside of the bar.
Bit hazy on the order of the next few events. Had to save one goalbound effort from Rob when he inadvertently diverted a low cross towards the near post. We were then unlucky to concede again when our goalie rushed out in a one-on-one with their forward who cheekily ended up playing a one-two off him and was then able to cross the ball to be tapped-in for Wheatsheaf's fourth.
Despite the scoreline and the man-disadvantage, we were still playing good football. A rare free-kick in the opposing half from our left saw some neat interplay between Ben, Nath and Harry, with the latter teeing up Max in the box, who smashed it in for our second.
Ed went into the book after a challenge on the edge of our area along with Ahmed for one earnest discussion with the ref too many. The resulting free-kick took ages to take, but ultimately came to nothing. Ed wasn't done conceding penalties unfortunately, his second one of the day, a full on hack in the area that there was no arguing with. Different penalty taker, different corner, same result. We still managed to respond via Max getting a second with a low blast from just outside the box, that squeezed under their goalie, who really should have done better. Would never have happened at the other end...
Anyway, the scoring was rounded out by a well taken finish on the half volley. Our goalie did make one fantastic save (and yes, he might as well say that himself), mid-air at full stretch, the tip of his finger diverting the fierce shot onto the top of the bar. Nath went into the book after more discussions on the quality of the ref's work. The ref's day itself was capped off by pulling up one of their players for swearing at him and then just booking him instead of producing a red. Safe to say he's not on our Christmas card list.
So a really disappointing day all round and a bit hard to take. Clean sheet with 11 men, 3 goals scored with 10. What could have been... Referees are human too and they can have bad days, like any of the other 22 people on the pitch. He will obviously have his own view of what transpired but everybody there saw what went on and the game could definitely have been managed better.
As for us, though, we made a good game of it despite everything taking the game to a quality opposition even when we were a man light and everyone can be proud of the performance they put in.
