Match Report

Again beaten by a better side, despite a more encouraging performance this week.

Again with a lot more changes in personnel, formation and starting line up, we went into this fixture with a different, but strong side. With Ford in goal, Wright and Davis making up the centre backs, Connelly and Benningfield the full backs, a centre midfield of Pester and Judge with Connor on the left and Perkins on the right, leaving Dawson and Cleaver up front.

Before the game started we talked about dealing with their danger men – the left midfielder and Knuckey up front, but after twenty minutes they combined well and put Bridon ahead against the run of play. Shortly after, Bridon were two up after a deflected shot crept under the body of the already committed Ford. On general play we were unlucky to be 2-0 down as we were seeing a lot of the ball, but saying that, we just were not penetrative enough with our good play, another trait that has blighted our season.

At the half we spoke about the next goal being the important goal, but in general keep doing what we were doing and being more positive and attacking in our play. However, it was Bridon that got the killer third goal when we gave the ball away cheaply and let their unmarked forward go clean through, outpace our defence and round our keeper for an easy finish. We do make things easy for the opposition.

Bridon then could have scored more if it was not for some sound goalkeeping from Ford.

In general I think we competed with Bridon and certainly had our fair share of the play, but Bridon were more penetrative with their play and created a lot more chances. This stems from having a regular squad and knowing each other''s game inside out and working as a unit. I have had to use 35 different players this season, which gives us no consistency or backbone and is directly reflective in the lack of consistency in our results. They also play well to their strengths and have a great use of their pace, something we failed to deal with in both encounters. From what I have seen this season, Bridon are the best side in this league and the title run-in looks as though it will get interesting after Westerham’s defeat to Tonbridge, who are another good footballing side.

We must improve on our games to finish on a high as we have lost our last three fixtures, and this type of form is simply not good enough.

Home this week against New Broms, a side we should have easily beaten last time around and we need to bounce back and get a result.