Goal: Fullerton
This is a relatively painful match report to write. To begin thanks to Jermaine for making the trip with Kurt to give us 11. That was as good as things got for us.
We did manage to put out a strong enough 11 but we just never got going. Our inability to sting more than 4 passes together was shocking, with Murphy at left back the biggest culprit, although to be fair to him he had nothing to pass to any time he got the ball.
As a result of us giving the ball away we were constantly under attack from a good Civil Service team who had a mighty wind at their back. Will and James deserve a lot of credit here as they defended absolutely everything thrown at them. Civil took the lead when we switched off at a quick throw. Their striker who was a right handful got in behind the back 4 and calmly lifted it over Toby in goal. 0-1.
We weathered the storm till half time relieved that we were only one down. The half time talk focused on playing alot closer together and trying to put the oppo under as much pressure as we were put under when we had the ball. We did this really well for the first 20 minutes and got back into it when Kurt bulldozed his way in from the left and fired into the corner. 1-1.
From here we should have kicked on but we went back to our first half sloppiness. Again we defend resolutely for the remaining 25 minutes with Murphy coming up with one or two vital blocks to atone for the shocking passing.
Civil took the lead with virtually the last kick of the game when they broke down our right. The cross was half cleared and fell to one of the midfielders on the edge of the box who smashed past Toby. It was a well taken finish but one they shouldn’t have scored. Only the hard working Seb tracked the run of three of Civils midfielders which just wasn’t good enough.
As a team we need to sort this out quickly. After a solid start to the season we are now cruising and it’s not good enough for 4th team level, let alone any team in the club. Saturday just highlighted the fact. Only a handful of players pressurized the oppo when they had the ball compared to Civils who were all over us when we had the ball. Every time they broke they always seemed to have two or three extra players over as we didn’t bother tracking the runs. Next week is another cup game so we have to go back to basics to get a win and make sure we put things right in time for when we are back in league action.
