We took an early lead last Saturday at home on pitch 2 at the Racecourse following an initial period of dominance. The towering EBOG centre halves were desperately scrambling away clearances as we piled on the pressure. John Scantlebury finished well at the far post to put us one ahead. We had another couple of chances early in the second half that we failed to put away and allowed EBOG to get back into the game.
Their equaliser came mid way into the first half and they began to pile on the pressure. We should have had a penalty when Rich was taken down in the area but the ref waved play on and EBOG were left off the hook. Going in at half time, 1-1 was the score which after playing up hill is normally decent but the penalty advantage could have been a game changer.
About ten minutes into the 2nd half, unfortunately, Manuel dropped a cross and one of the EBOG forwards had a two yard tap in to put them ahead. We lost our shape a little after going behind and often over hit the ball instead of looking up to find a man to pass to as we had been doing in the first half. Not long after, EBOG scored a third and again, we panicked in possession and failed to do the easy things correctly.
That said, in the last 15 minutes, we changed the formation to 3-4-3 in the search of goals. Declan came in up front with debutant Richard Cutler and Harald came in at right back to allow Chirac move to right wing. We managed to keep most of the play in EBOG’s half for the last ten minutes. Mel hit the post, the keeper made some good saves and they conceded lots of corners but the goals failed to come. It was a frustrating result as EBOG were not the better team on the day. However, we will put this one behind us and look forward to an improved performance this Saturday away to Old Owens.
Team: Manuel Veth, Chirac Shah, Derek Graham, Melvin Loughnane, Mike Myers, Ollie Edge (Harald Krefting), Anthony Shaw, Richard Fryer, Jack Dudmish, John Scantlebury(Declan Dunning), Nathan Mellows (Richard Cutler).
