Match Report

An apology of a match report!

Often in the past I have been involved in games where despite the best efforts of the defence, we have lost, either because the forwards have been wasteful with their finishing or the midfield hasn’t worked and the ball has just kept coming back towards us. On other occasions the keeper has had an off day. Well today’s match, let me tell you, was not one of those occasions.

We lost today because, well, the back four had a shocker of Burnley-esque proportions. We got our tactics totally wrong, putting us under pressure, leading to cheap goals, and individual loss of confidence.

Our lineup was:

Jake Byrne GK

Mark Friend RB
Steve Blanchard CB
Paul Parsons CB
Colin Brazier LB

Josh Walsh RM
Dan Head (Capt.) CM
Grant Kelsey CM
Ben Tomkins LM

Gary Harrigan CF
Danny Evans CF

Subs: Matt Gardiner, Chris Landy, Simon Davies

Manager (standing in for Paul Eddleston): Des Fallon

I’ll keep this brief.

In the first half the midfield linked well with the two forwards and created some good chances, the “sunny intervals” among the frequent “heavy showers” of defensive slip ups at the other end. The half time score was 1-4, Gary having atoned for an earlier miss by converting a far harder chance just before the interval.

At half time Josh came off for Chris and Gary for Simon, and then Matt came on for Danny, who had a tight hamstring. As luck would have it, there were no defenders on the bench, so Des’s options were limited.

It seems absurd, but if we could just get that first goal in the second half…

We started brightly, but once again were caught out by a fast break about 15 minutes into the half and the contest was over. All that remained was to try to salvage some pride. West Hill are a decent side and were passing the ball around with pace and the confidence that comes from winning, and added a couple more goals past an overworked Jake, who must have been wondering what he’d done to upset everyone.

Man of the match went to Grant Kelsey, who always wanted the ball and used it well throughout the 90 minutes.

Taking this forward, the back line accepts full responsibility for today’s result and apologies are due to all concerned, notably Des, who put great effort and enthusiasm into his caretaker role. All four of us thrashed this out after the game and these mistakes must not be repeated.

Thanks are due to Rod Loe, who was a last minute replacement for the appointed referee who did not arrive. Rod had a very good game, giving one defender (me) the benefit of the doubt when he made a last ditch tackle. Thinking about it, if he’d given me a red card it might have done all of us a favour, as we lost more heavily today than we did with 10 against the same opposition a few weeks ago!

Heigh ho, roll on the next game…