Not much to say of a match which we controlled for pretty much ninety minutes, even though W Hill scored two early goals against the run of play, the first a shot deflected off Causer, the next, an unfortunate clearance from Ritchie into our net from a whizzing cross.
But it didn’t dampen our spirit and we carried on with a mix of decent passing and long balls to our centre forwards, not always pretty but effective as it proved when Roberts chased a Kennedy forty yard ball, which their keeper caught only to drop it under pressure in front of Josh to score from three yards; unfortunately the ref disallowed it for some imaginary foul on their number one. “Quietly frustrated” by this minor setback, we pressed on and were rewarded shortly after once again Josh the executioner, 2-1.
Couple of changes at half time, Wayne on for Fletcher, Tullet for Andy, didn’t affect the pattern in the second period, even though W H stepped up a gear or two, our midfield was solid and so was our defence. There were few chances on either sides, but our superior effort finally paid off, Manning finding a gap through W H defence with a great strike from 18 yards, 2-2. We kept going in search of the winning goal, but somehow, from a cross just outside our box and the help of a push on Bagley, W H got the header, looping into the path of their striker standing two yard offside giving Manuel no chance, and you guessed it, the ref didn’t see anything wrong with it, 3-2.
With ten minutes to go, we threw everything we could, Josh first on a loose ball yards from the post only for their keeper to ram him from behind, “Penalty ref”, but you guessed it again, play on… but with the opposite from the first half, I was “loudly frustrated” by this major setback this time. In the dying minutes, Manuel ran across the pitch to almost score from the last corner hitting the inside post.
Back in September, our host convincingly beat us 8-2, this time though we were the better team and deserved to win, but for the third time this season we were let down by poor decisions.
PS: An apology to Wayne for once again getting all my anger and frustration directed at him, even if sometimes justified, totally undeserved.
Team: M. Veth(GK), A. Ritchie(RB), N. Bagley(CB), L. Caudebec(CB), D Tornarides(LB), J. Kennedy(LM), S. Causer(CM), R. Kurton(CM), C. Manning(RB), J. Roberts(CF), C. Fletcher(CF)
Sub: D. Tullett(LB) and W. Rose(CF)
