Match Report

We turned up at the Fitness Exchange with a good squad of 14 players but without a goalkeeper. It then became clear why Toby Harlow was showing off a new pair of gloves in the clubhouse before the game and asking people to try them on. But he didn’t get any takers so valiantly nominated himself to go in. The team formation was once again switched about due to change in personnel. Toby Harlow played in goal with myself and Trevor Stewart being asked to play as full backs alongside Steve Blanchard and Pat Mongelard with a midfield of Colin Ebdon, Chris Ponulak, Kevin Moynihan and Paul Scotter and up front we had Colin Mant and Neil Smith.

We started very well with everybody getting involved creating some very nice passing moves and had Diamond pinned back in their half for most of the first half. Once again injuries affected our game with both Neil Smith and Colin Ebdon having to go off in quick succession to be replaced by Terry Edwards up front and Chris Bourlet in midfield. We created a number of chances and had them under the cosh so it made it that much harder to accept that they had two attacks and scored two goals before half time. We managed to pull one back when Chris Ponulak crossed in a ball from the left which was missed by everyone including the Diamond keeper. With the score at 2-1 at half time we felt that the game was still there to be won…preferably by us. One surprise during half time was that not only did we have oranges this week but the opposition also supplied us with extra oranges.

The second half saw us continue to take the game to Diamond and snatch the equaliser fairly early on with Colin Mant bending a shot into the top right hand corner to become equal top goal scorer for the season with Baysie on 5 goals. But things didn’t go our way and Diamond managed to increase their lead three more times before the final whistle to give them a score line that really did flatter them (no offence intended). We still had a lot of the game and kept pushing forward but just couldn’t find that killer touch.

So it''s back to the drawing board and continue the search for that elusive win with a game against Crofton next week. First game against them this season so an unknown quantity. One other thing: when you do a spellcheck did you know that Baysie comes up as Bessie??