Gutted is the most appropriate comment that I think we can make here - not just because we have missed a great opportunity to reach a cup final but mainly due to the fact that we didn’t perform and were robbed of the opportunity to by very poor performances from two of the appointed officials.
That said we should take nothing away from Kemsing who on the day made the most of circumstances presented to them, deserve their place in the final and we wish them good luck in May.
Early indications in the morning showed no signs of the events to follow. We had a strong squad, lacking only Harps through injury and Peter through holiday, and everybody was on time and focused.
The opening five minutes though set the tone with Dave Burren twice getting beyond their defence only to be crudely brought down. On both occasions other than the awarding of a free kick the referee took no action. From then on Kemsing knew that whenever we threatened the worst that could happen to them was for a foul to be awarded and this removed a major threat from our game. That said, in the first half we didn’t get in those situations too often and for once our forwards and midfield were too isolated. Although we had the better possession we didn’t have a cutting edge and Kemsing when they did break looked more potent with their big centre forward causing lots of problems.
At half time, with the game goal less, we spoke positively and were all aware of the need to open the game up, move the ball wide and support the front two. Although we couldn’t really fault the effort there was a lethargy to our play which gave the impression of a lack of urgency.
All that changed within a minute of the re-start. Initially we were caught out on a through ball but their winger wasn’t able to capitalise on the one on one situation and shot tamely at the Chimp. However, in attempting to throw the ball out to our full back Chimp threw the ball straight to the feet of their centre forward who gratefully side footed the ball back in to the unguarded net.
Up against it, we now had to become more urgent but things still remained pretty uneventful going forward. The turning point, however, came on sixty-five minutes when Wardy was shepherding a long ball out for a goal kick under pressure from a forward. He appeared to have done a good job, and although there was a tangling of arms which is the norm in that situation, we turned for the goal kick. At that point the linesman decided to intervene, flagged and informed the ref that Wardy had elbowed the guy in the face. There was a flurry of arms from both players as he sought to see the ball out but there was clearly no intent and the whole affair was at worst 50:50. This really was an attempt by the assistant to get involved in and referee the game in a moment of glory. Unfortunately, he perhaps doesn’t realise that his self elevation is at the expense of others enjoyment. The penalty was scored to put us two down with twenty-five minutes remaining.
It was only now that we managed to get forward with real penetration as we reverted to three at the back and brought on Millsy to support the attack. We should have been rewarded and back in the game within minutes when the ball fell invitingly to Dave a yard out but the ball somehow ended wide of the goal. We did manage to revive our hopes with ten minutes remaining when Wardy himself scored from the spot. Despite continued pressure thereafter we weren’t able to get the all important equaliser and the game was settled as the nintey approached when we were caught on the counter and their centre forward scored at the far post.
Of course we are disappointed and can quite rightly blame the result in part on the officials, however we do also need to look at ourselves. For once we lacked cohesion going forward and were very stagnated in our play. I don’t think we were complacent but there did appear to be a lack of spark that we have to-date always shown in the big games. It is now down to us to put this behind us and drive on for the remainder of the season. Hopefully Sunday will have shown the disappointment that comes from defeat in big games and will ensure that we don’t allow it to happen again as we now focus solely on retaining the title.
Team:
L.Baker
A.Lindsey
S.Hunter
N.Coxon
I.Ward
M.Wood
G.Manser
A.Chapman
O.Allman
D.Burren
A.Evans
Subs:
M.Millins (for Coxon)
I.Jones (for Manser)
L.Gent (for Wood)