East Peckham Juniors 3 v 2 Pembury
We were away to East Peckham this week, our toughest game in the last 3 weeks and with a severely depleted squad we knew it would be tough.
We chose to play with the elements in the first half and hoped that the use of a strong wind could work us into a lead that we could hold onto in the second half. The first half was an even affair and East Peckham were the first to breakthrough, a free kick avoided everyone and Sammy did well to save, his stop though unfortunately fell to the feet of the striker who struck again, only for Sammy to save again. Unfortunately it was third time unlucky for us as the ball fell again to the forward who this time put them ahead. The game ebbed and flowed and eventually we worked our way back into it. A flick on by Ollie from Tommy’s throw in, found Liam, who in turn played a one two with Caner before sliding in the galloping Wood to slide the ball under the keeper for 1-1. It was our first fluid move of the match and showed that playing simple football on the floor would be effective. We took the lead when their keeper played out a short goal kick to their full back, Liam managed to rob the ball and then finish over the keeper for 2-1. It seemed like we’d see out the lead until half time as planned but unfortunately a missed tackle and a little bit of hesitancy allowed their striker to have an easy finish and put us 2-2 at the break and to face a half against the breeze.
What we didn’t account for is the start of the second half when their forward capitalised on Nick unfortunately taking a fraction too long on the ball and they had scored within almost 5 seconds of the restart. Peckham in fairness played some decent football in the second half and despite their goals all having an element of fortune continued to play some decent stuff. It was harder for us to clear our lines with the wind now and we had the occasional attack where we were thwarted by the keeper. We managed to force a nervy last 5 minutes with a succession of corners but unfortunately didn’t quite have it in us to get a point.
It was our first league defeat since the opening day of the season and so everyone was disappointed. All the games are important from now on in if we want to achieve the highest league finish possible. Thanks to Brownie for coming along to help out without getting on. There were some decent performances on Saturday in difficult conditions, hopefully with more players available in the coming weeks we will be able to turn things around.
Team:
S.Balcombe
S.Palermo
C.Fletcher
N.Edwards
T.Gent
M.Kubik
C.Veli
M.Wood
H.Webb
L.Gent
O.Funnell
Subs:
M.Brown
