Well the first half was an up hill struggle but it was downhill after the break, literally.
We started the game facing into the sun and two regulars short though injury so it was up to last weeks referee Moore and Jones who had amassed a total of 13 minutes pitch time all season so you could say we were up against it. T Gat started well as they always seem to do passing the ball around nicely staying focused and making some good runs. The slickness of the ground proved a problem on a couple of occasions when some lovely trough balls were played but the first bounce was just taking the ball away from the forwards time after time. The first chance fell to Roberts when one of the many though balls found him and despite the the desperate call of offside he found the time to set himself and shoot just as the the referee blew for offside a little late many thought. T Gat stayed focused and started to put more moves together Jones found himself with time outside the box and saw the keeper of his line and was unfortunate to see his chip just graze the crossbar. Again T Gat persisted with Silence overlapping Jones on the wing Jones laying the ball off and Silence floating a lovely ball to the back post that was met by Roberts who was so unfortunate to see his touch go the wrong side of the post. Thomas Moore didnt really offer up much of an attack in the first half aside from a few ballooning shots and some mistimed runs T Gat looked comfortable. The first half ended 0-0 and T Gat were the happier of the two teams.
The second half kicked off and it was T Gats turn to shoot downhill. Again the passes were being strung together nicely with T Gat wanting the ball on the ground and Thomas Moore wanting to play punt and run of the back of one of Thomas Moores attacks Poplett picked the ball up on the edge of the box and saw a great ariel pass find Silence on the right wing who skipped past the left back and provided a lovely ground pass to Jones on the edge of the area who sold the centre back the wrong way leaving him clear to chance a low drilled shot straight into the bottom left corner 0-1. Confidence was up and more and more shots and crosses were troubling the Thomas More keeper but unfortunately the second goal wasn't to be. On 75mins saw the departures of an injured Constable and a heroic Jones was taken off by the manager to receive his richly deserved standing ovation ;-).
Towards the end of the game T Gat started to sit back alot more they soaked up the attacks well but this seemed to invited the pressure and if it wasn't for the supurb Litchfield in goal who at one point should have been wearing his pants outside his shorts when he flew across the goal and palmed away a certain equaliser with his outstretched left hand,eat your heart out Cech. It was the last minute of extra time that saw the undoing of T Gats defence when a throw in in the final third skimmed of the shin of Thomas Moores number 9 which took the ball past Litchfield and fell to the on coming midfielder who had a simple tap in at the back post. It proved to be the final action of the match and the match was drawn 1-1 although to T Gat it felt like a loss. Sill it was a good game and for the most of it was very encouraging.
The next game against Nutfield is going to be another tough game in the cup they are in the division above us but we have beaten the division leaders so its not an impossible task come on T Gat we can do it.
