Abacus showed that preserving their Division One status meant more to them than our own tilt for The League Title and they worked hard for the full 90 minutes thoroughly deserving their win.
Although we had a bare eleven, every player on show would have considered himself able to grace any starting line up and therein lay the problem - unearned arrogance. Too many players were too casual. Instead of knuckling down to work hard at the basics we chose instead (again) to blame, the ball, the pitch, the shape, the tactics the ref, the opposition and even team mates - but seldom ourselves. Worse still we all acknowledged the need to leave the referee alone and to curb the dissent yet within the first 10 minutes the referee had to speak to 4 individual Association players - its not good enough.
We seemed to start brightly Sam's 1st minute pressure released Glen who was fouled and Olli's well struck free kick skimmed wide. Two minutes later Sam's fierce drive was saved and Josh thrashed the loose ball skyward. They responded and stand in 'keeper Dazza made a great save, his early release to Bowles was thumped forward and Glen used his pace to race clear and calmly slot home for 1-0. The next 10 minutes saw us dominate posession but we failed to create any clear cut chances altho' Olli fizzed one just wide and Glen almost broke free again.
In the 21st thy collected a poor pass from Bill and their cross field ball caught Bill and Kim flat footed and they scored from a low drive from just outside the box to make it 1-1. We responded well and a six pass interchange Olli/Sam/Josh ended when Josh was upended in the box. Kim converted the penalty for 2-1. Pretty much from the restart they pitched a ball towards Bowles whos poor touch gifted possession, Billy failed to stay on his feet and deal with the cross leaving them an easy close range slot to square the game. It was more or less down hill from there. The second period of the first half is best not mentioned.
The start of the second half saw us at our very worst.
Everyone was instructed to get back to basics, take a touch and keep it simple. Immediately from the kick off Olli showed he wasnt listening and set the couldnt care less tone when his first touch of the half was a one touch/top of the ball roll which gave the ball away. In the 49th minute with good possession and players breaking Andy chose an aimless and hopeless long range (35 yard) shot. Conceding possession we were turned and a corner to them followed just 3 touches later. The corner was converted to a goal kick which Dazza scuffed to them, Bowles was too far from their loose forward and conceded a penalty 3-2 to them. Three times in quick succession further poor "passes" from Billy gifted them the ball, the third time Kim was caught flat footed again and stretched a lazy leg which only played them in for their fourth. In the 67th minute Mark turned inside again onto his right foot and with his forward options closed he played a suicidal crossfield ball, when the ball came back on his side he rounded things off with an edge of the box foul which they almost converted
We sparked into some sort of life for the last 10 with Olli pulling one back from Pearcy's cross. Any final momentum that we might have had as we looked for a last gasp equaliser was squandered as Olli decided to earn himself a a last minute booking which could quite easily have been a red.
Today unfortunately we had too many below par performances and although the back four were pretty poor what was in front of them wasn't much better, Jack's touch and distribution was woeful and too often Andy's failure to release and deliver frustrated and disrupted the forward momentum. Sam and Josh flitted in and out without ever dominating the middle and probably Glen was the one player who could be reasonably satisfied with his game once he'd shaken off the ring rust.
We are still searching for last seasons "balls" where we were able to dig out results despite not playing well. Last season we would dig deep, finding drive and determination, this season we are lapsing back into bad temper and poor discipline - its been picked up by the League Management Committe and if we dont come up with some additional internal tighter code of conduct we will find ourselves on the wrong end of serious sanctions.
This defeat doesnt change the bigger picture as we still need to win three league games which we wont do if we play this poorly and with this attitude. MOM Glen well done and welcome back.
