We had a good feel about us today - we were organised, well prepared and the signs were good. Within 2 minutes Kim's slotted pass to Sam was the 6th in a flowing move and with the 'keeper beaten only the bar denied Sam an early goal. Kyle's early nerves were on show two minutes later when a loose pass let them in but Joel tidied up. Kyle made amends a minute later starting the move which saw Josh and Olli combine for a lovely double 1-2 with Josh's crisp cross slotted home well by Dazza. They were quick to respond drawing a great full stretch save from Revill just a minute later. The action was fast and Steve was caught in possession in the 9th and a corner to them followed. Kyle's thumping clearing header found Kim who held the ball up and slotted into Josh's path, Josh got a low drive away but it was a whisker wide. They continued to press and Joel was repeatedly called into action and was top drawer in his screening play. In the 18th Kim tried a reverse pass to the left when he had runners to his right, the move broke down and a punted clearance was missed in the air by Steve and this confused Chippy allowing them to run thro' 1on1 with Revill who almost, but couldn't quite, closed the angle and they levelled the score. At the other end good closing by Kim n Dazza earned Josh an opening for a strike which flew just over.
In the 25th Josh was winded in a crunching tackle. Using the roll on/roll off rule Mark came on while Josh recovered and within a minute Mark' angled pass was brought down by Olli on the edge of the box and he turned and shot to net for 2-1, great technique. In the next 10 minutes we had them on the back foot as Josh Sam and Olli created openings for Kim n Dazza but in the 38th it was a trademak long throw by Bowles, flicked on by Kim and netted by Dazza that extended our lead to 3-1. They wouldn't lie down and Bowles made two crutial last ditch tackles as we parked the bus in front of our 18 yard box to keep them out. In the 41st we scored from our corner but the goal was ruled out for a foul on the 'keeper. We lost our concentration as they immediately went up the other end and earned their own corner. A good clearing header was volleyed straight back for an unstoppable goal. We still had our heads on the disallowed goal and our marking was slack on the edge of the box - we were too slow to press/block the second ball. In the final minute Dazza had a clear chance to double our lead but he skied it as he went to ground.
We knew that they weren' finished and it was important that we maintained our tempo. We managed the first 30 minutes of the second half so well that there was nothing to report at either end. In the 76th Olli picked up the ball in our third and his pitch length, strong run was finished coolly - a fabulous solo goal. At 4-2 with 15 to go we needed cool heads but several players lost their composure and they netted directly from a long throw in our left corner. Within a minute of the restart Kyle, under no pressure, played a ball straight to them, chaos in our defence followed with Chippy, Kyle, Bowles all attacking the same ball gifting them a 4-4 equaliser. Just 1 minute later we failed to deal with a bread and butter corner with a runner netting on the half turn at our front post.
From 4-2 up to 5-4 down in three short minutes was all down to us - a pity as we'd controlled a game against very decent opposition. We worked hard for the last 12 minutes and although we worked up a head of steam the ref gave us no minutes for the injuries and substitutions and we came away empty handed.
We all feel bad at the minute but today i saw the return of The Association. We have to pick up on the 87 good minutes of this game - playing like this the 4 remaining trophies remain in our hands. There were no poor performances today just a handful of mistakes for which we were cruelly punished, for 87 minutes our football was back to where it should be. There were several top drawer performances today, Sam was outstanding but so was Olli who gets MOM, that solo goal tipping the balance - well done Sam, Olli and each of the remaining 11.
