Match Report

Fifteen Minutes of Madness.....

The Guild's pre-season programme took a setback yesterday as fifteen minutes of defensive madness cost us dearly. Notable absentees of Judge, Davis, Mumford, Kendall, Williams L, Cooke and Paramenter left us short of options.

In the first ten minutes we got to grips with the game coming close on a few occasions before a Hughes strike after a great team move gave the Guild the lead. With an early goal in the bag and the lion's share of play, we all obviously thought that it was going to be an easy afternoon and we took our foot off the accelerator and eased back on the hard graft and paid the ultimate price. Three individual errors in quick succession gifted Hawkenbury their goals, the first from non-communication and getting caught in possession, the second from a handling error and third from sheer laziness. After this uncharacteristic crazy spell, we again got to grips with game and finished the half well.

At the half we knew we had to sort out our concentration levels and made a few switches. The second half was completely dominated by the Guild who created countless opportunities that they did not take or was well saved by the Hawkenbury No. 1. Fifteen minutes from time Hughes picked up on a parried shot by the Hawkenbury keeper and slotted coolly into the net. Despite more chances and our best efforts, the game finished with Hawkenbury a goal to the good.

From this fixture we need to learn that we need to maintain our concentration for the entire ninety minutes. We must not switch off physically or mentally or we will find ourselves in this situation again. No result can be taken for granted until the final whistle goes. Our recent good performances have always been based on hard work and graft and after we got our first goal we kicked back and relaxed instead of driving forward and killing the game off. However, we did play well for very large parts of this game and another day would have run out comfortable winners. Hughes deservedly picked up man of the match for bagging a brace and being at the heart of everything good and now takes his tally to four goals in three games.

Man of the Match: Jamie Hughes

Farnborough OBG: 1. Edwards (12. Hawkes); 2. Warren; 3. Travers; 4. Abbott; 5. Perkins; 6. Hutchins (13. Elliott); 7. Williams, J; 8. Stevens (14. Eales); 9. Wray; 10. Hughes; 11. Cleaver