07/04/11: The Victory Club (0) v (1) Hunters Lodge (City FC)
Scorers: None
Team: Swan (GK), Mountford (Fisher), Hudson, Davison (c), Bunyan, Robson, Harding, Rodgers, M. Dryden, Smiles, Stores (Hunter)
Unused Subs: None
Yellows: Rodgers
Reds: None
The Victory Club slumped to a second defeat inside a fortnight against Hunters Lodge as once again a woeful performance saw them lose by a single goal.
The night began with problems as the Victory turned up to find two kid’s teams already going through their warm ups on the pitch Lee Hermiston’s men were scheduled to use. A half an hour stand off ensued with various members of both camps phoning various people. Incredibly, the final decision was that the Victory were not allowed to play on their own pitch and were instead forced to decamp up to one of the other two pitches on the complex. To the say the pitch they ended up using was in poor condition was an understatement. It was actually quite dangerous a point which was backed up by the number of injuries sustained during the game by players from both sides.
The Victory manager stuck with the 5-4-1 formation for the third game in a row but made a single change bringing in the fit again, Lewis Swan, in place of Anth Collins, who missed out due to a combination of a groin injury and work commitments. Swan took over the gloves from Alex Rodgers who in turn replaced Collins in the centre of midfield alongside Mark Dryden who kept his place after an exceptional display there against Sunderland Athletic.
The Victory began slugglishly and Hunters Lodge cranked up the pressure from the first whistle.
The men in red survived an early scare when a flicked near post header from the tall Hunters Lodge centre forward was cleared off the line by Stephen Robson.
Hunters Lodge for all their possession though were struggling to create any real chances from open play.
Then, with around twenty minutes gone, they got the goal their possession deserved although it owed a lot to the Victory’s failings at being able to defend set pieces. A free kick was swung into the box from the left all the way to the back post where a Hunters Lodge player found himself completely unmarked. He headed the ball back across the box to a team-mate who gleefully slammed the ball past a helpless Swan from close range.
Hunters Lodge almost doubled their advantage a couple of minutes later but as was the case earlier in the half, Stephen Robson cleared another header off the line. Swan was also required to make a good save to tip a looping header onto his crossbar.
It wasn’t until just after the half hour mark that the Victory finally came to life. Referee, Fatai Balogun, awarded the Victory a free kick just outside the edge of the penalty area. From the resulting dead ball kick, Stephen Robson’s effort was clearly handled by a member of the defensive wall but amazingly the official turned down the vociferous appeals for a penalty despite looking straight at the incident. He instead insisted that it was in fact ball to hand rather than hand to ball.
Right on half time the Victory had their best chance of the first period. A ball over the top put James Smiles clear on goal. He easily outpaced the covering defender but just as he was lining up his shot the ball took a horrendous bobble and the Victory forward ended up skewing his effort well wide of the right hand post.
Serious questions were asked by Hermiston at the half time interval but despite their poor first half display his side were still only a solitary goal behind. Scott Hunter was a half time substitute, coming on in place of lone striker, Ben Stores. His withdrawal would see Hunter play on the left wing with Smiles moving up front.
The Victory started the second half with a bit more purpose with Hunter especially finding some joy when running at Hunters Lodges’ right back. He twice managed to get in down the left but unfortunately both times his pull back failed to find a Victory player.
Hunters Lodge seemed content to try and sit on their one goal advantage and offered very little in the way of an attacking threat. Swan barely had to dirty his gloves in the second half other than claim a few crosses that were delivered into his box.
A flurry of Victory corners almost brought an equaliser. Rodgers saw one header flash across the box and wide of the far post while Davison had an effort blocked on the line.
With twenty minutes remaining, Alex Rodgers completed a unique hat-trick when he picked up his third yellow card of the season for deliberate handball.
In a final throw of the dice, Hermiston threw on Chris Fisher for Simon Mountford and went to 4-4-2 for the last fifteen minutes.
The change had little effect though as the Victory for all their huffing and puffing just weren’t going to score. In fact they could have spent all night playing and still wouldn’t have found the back of the net.
So when the final whistle went the Victory were left to reflect on another defeat. Despite recent improvements in defence the goals have dried up at the other end with just two scored in the last four games – one a penalty by Davison and the other Lee Hermiston’s speculative effort against Hendon Vics. Strong words could be heard between the Victory players after the game but talk is cheap and the side must look to put things right on the pitch. Thankfully, the men in red don’t have too long to wait to try and put their words into action – their next game is on Sunday against New Demi. The match was supposed to be a home fixture for the Victory but due to Grange Park using the Fulwell Mill Arena, the match has been switched to New Demi’s home pitch at the Silksworth Sports Complex.
