after a great result the previous week versus a physical Scole united, uea could not push on and grab another 3 points. with many players letting the team down by not making themselves available to play it was somewhat a depleted uea side that travelled to attlebourough but neverthless a strong enough side to give the home team a run for there money. yet again however there were more questions left unanswered after this game which eventually finished 1-1 and could of perhaps gone either way by the end.
attlebourough started strong and pegged uea back into there own half for a long period of the 1st half. this saw them deservedly take the lead very early on, as a long throw in from near the box was launched in and uea failed miserably to deal with the danger as the ball fell to the striker and he pounced to put attlebourough 1-0 ahead. the scoreline could have been much worse if it was not for the impressive Kibbey, who strung some wonderful saves that kept uea in the game.
with things not going there way uea woke up as they seemed to have been still in the changing rooms for the 1st 20 minutes of the game. they started to attack down both flanks with martey and jones working hard but unfortunately to no avail. a few free kicks on the edge of the box also caused attlebourough some problems as some good deliveries from ap dafydd were just not quite hitting the target of bacon and altays heads. ironacilly however after ueas hard work of trying to get the goal that would bring them level, a long range hopefull shot from fletcher seemed to take the goalie by surprise as it bounced right in front of him but somehow found it's way into the net.
finding themselves level at half time and boyued by the fact, uea came out extremely strong second half. with the wind firmly in there favour uea were now pegging attlebourough into their own half. however not many chances were coming the students way, as they were confined to long range efforts, a few corners and some more wipped in free kicks that came to no avail. with attlebourough seemingly weathering the storm they now themselves started to get a second wind and the game was becoming a lot more open.
both teams started pushing for the winner, as attleborough started firing long balls into ueas penalty box via some free kicks and corners and uea using the counter attack. on the 80 minute mark it seemed that uea had won the game as a well delivered corner by potter found atlays head only for the reff to dissalow the goal for an apparent push. the reffs decision making was suspect all game as both teams started to get on his back as he could not keep up with play and started giving away silly free kicks.
however the game finished on level par with both teams taking a point. uea will be extremely dissapointed with not so much the result but for the performance. it became very apparent that there style of football was left somehwere on the journey to attlebourough as they played so many errant long balls and got sucked into attlebouroughs game plan. this will be a game that skipper ap dafydd will want to forget in a hurry but on the other hand there were some good idividual performances. richards worked extremely hard, perhaps making up for his struggling form of late. chapman covered an extensive area of ground accompanied by fletcher who kept battling away. also after the first shaky 20 minutes the pairing of altay and bacon once again impressed keeping the defence tight.
hopefully most students will get a few weeks break from football so that in the new year they will be back fresh and firing.
