After such a good start to the season, where we have played some great football, I am afraid this was one of those Sunday mornings when you wonder whether it is all worth it and are forced to consider whether we are in fact any different to the other pub sides in the league. I would like to think that we are well organised and have a bunch of very good players who want to win things. Yesterday, with people having spent most of the week and Saturday evening trying to ensure that we had as good a side as possible, we turned up with most (not all) of the squad either hung over, complacent or just not up for the fight. There is no need to name names because everyone should have pride in their own performance but after you have questioned yourself and decided that you didn’t do yourself or your mates justice - make a note that you owe us something in the next game.
The game kicked off with only seven of the opposition on the pitch and this perhaps didn’t put us in the perfect mindset. Nevertheless they were very quickly up to the full compliment and went ahead on six minutes when a long ball over the top found our defence hopelessly out of position and their centre forward calmly put them ahead. Instead of this giving us a wake up call it only seemed to make matters worse as we continued defend abysmally and couldn’t pass the ball to a team mate all around the pitch. We were in fact very fortunate not to get to half time two down when it appears that they had a perfectly good goal ruled out because the ball went through a hole in the net. Fortunately the referee was unable to find the hole until it was pointed out to him by their manager at half time by which time it was too late.
We agreed at half time that the pitch was not conducive to short passing (no excuse) and decided to take a more direct approach and to try to get their defence turned. This appeared to be working as we quickly got on top and managed an equaliser when Dave Hymers side footed home a Barry Leete corner on sixty two minutes. Unfortunately, it only took six minutes for us to undo the work when we failed to clear a bouncing ball in our box and they capitalised to put us 2-1 down. The match became very much end to end from then on as we continued to push forward for the equaliser. This came on seventy three minutes when a long ball from the back by Dave Hymers found Harps through with a one on one with their keeper and he finished well. From then on we kept getting at them but it was all too frantic and we found ourselves snatching at chances or getting offside in our desperation to win the game. This was so evident in the final five minutes when we probably had in excess of six really good opportunities to score. That said they could have won the game in the final seconds when they headed over a glorious opportunity.
They say that some good always comes out of adversity and we can only hope that we learn something from this. Namely that if your not physically and mentally prepared you cannot perform to your ability and that there are no games in our division that you can leave until the last ten minutes to win.
Thanks to all the stand in players - you at least did yourselves and your managers proud even though at times you must have wondered why you were putting yourself out to help this lot win the league.
Team:
J.Ramskill
M.Wood
D.Hymers
A.Lindsey
I.Ward
L.Gent
G.Manser
M.Lester
M.Boorman
A.Evans
S.Harper
Subs:
B.Leete (for Boorman)
S.Waterman (for Ward)
L.Ferris (for Hymers)