Goals: Gunes (2), O’Leary
Someone famous once said that in sport, it is the little things that matter. One little thing, you can maybe gloss over, but when the little things add up, they can amount to a big problem. And so the little things conspired against us in our first loss of the season.
Firstly, we arrived to find that we had no changing room. BB Eagles are in dispute with the owners of their ground, who have essentially allowed the place to go to rack and ruin. 2 people managed to get changed in a room full of plates, on in the corridor. The rest of us changed by the side of the pitch. Secondly, Captain Fantastic McLoughlin ended up puking up his guts at the side of the pitch, so could there was a late change to the line-up with the returning Murray being asked to play out of position at the back.
To be honest, this is a game in which we never really got going. We did not really play well – we weren’t challenging second balls, and we were giving the oppo far too much space, which they were able to capitalise. We conceded when the winger utilised this space and had all the time to fire across Jason into the corner. We equalised soon after when Ozzy chipped the keeper from 25 yards.
At half-time, we spoke about putting right the wrongs of the first half, but failed to do that. The game seemed to be petering out to a 1-1 draw until the last 10 minutes. Eagles took the lead when our backline failed to pull out for an offside – the striker ran through and tucked home. Then a needless free kick was given away and put in. We then pulled one back, Conor being put through to dink over the keeper. We nearly equalised when Ozzy had a good chance turned round the post by the keeper. From the resultant corner we committed too many men, when someone tried a suicidal overhead kick in the centre circle and missed, their players ran through again and scored. We then pulled another goal back with a penalty from Ozan after someone was man-handled in the area. Finally with the last kick they scored another poor quality goal to make it 5-3.
So all in all a flattering result for them, but we in no way warranted a win. In short we must do better. We put this one to bed after the game when some harsh words were spoken, but we move on as a team. VITAL that we respond and move forward together.
Team – J Smith, A Smith, Duff, Jeater, Wilding, Hancock, Thatcher, Manu, O’Leary, Gunes, Hubbard, Kortveoss.
