A brief rain shower over night improved conditions slightly for Woodside Celtic Reserves vs Bexley Athletic at Coldharbour Leisure Centre. Having beaten Woodside convincingly in pre-season but losing to them earlier in the season, it would be interesting to see how Bexley would fare after back to back defeats damaging their promotion chances.
A blow before kick off for Bexley as Steve Bird withdrew moving Laurie to left back. On a warm and humid morning, the opening exchanges were rather tight with no real attempts on goal to speak of as both teams settled into the match. Bexley were attempting to use Kenan as a target man and Woodside clearly had a threatening forward dancing his way through the defence. Of the opening quarter of the match the only real event of not was a strike wide from Woodside, some hefty tackles in midfield, and an unnecessary punch from Dan. This was after James had to withdraw from right back due to injury with John replacing him.
Bexley somewhat bizarrely made the break through on 35 minutes when a ball over the top from Adam fell to Aaron on the left. Ignoring his manager’s instructions having been firmly told “you are not Henry” pre match, Aaron took the ball inside and finished neatly into the bottom right corner.
This went to inspire Woodside, high balls over the centre backs causing particular problems. A warning from Woodside with a tame mishit shot into Dan’s hands was followed by a genuine equalising opportunity when a ball from left to right left a player free but Dan made himself big and saved one vs one. Following this, just before half time, a Bexley corner was met well by Kenan who was unlucky to see his shot cleared off the line and his team mates unable to scrabble in the follow up.
Adam at half time told his team to be tight, knowing with the first half performance the game was far from won. Bexley did not respond to this and were under the cosh for the first 30 minutes of the second half with the forward players unable to hold onto the ball and the defence at sixes and sevens. Dan flicked wide another Woodside opportunity with the referee awarding a goal kick, but the inevitable occurred on 55 minutes. Yet another high ball over the top was not dealt with by the defence playing a striker in, Dan was too slow of his line and was beaten to the ball which was lobbed into the goal. On the face of it a good goal, could have been prevented.
The momentum was firmly with Woodside with their goalkeeper a virtual spectator for much of the early exchanges in the first half. Dan shovelled wide a shot curling towards the bottom corner and from the resulting corner the ball was not cleared giving Woodside a volley from close range which hit the side netting. On 62 minutes, Bexley’s promotion challenge looked to be over when a good attack from Woodside resulted in a player free in the 18 yard box to smash past Dan.
After a brief period of feeling sorry for themselves, Bexley dusted themselves down and tried to find the equaliser. Adam went for glory with a long range volley narrowly over. In the final part of the game Matt, Mark, and Laurence worked better off Kenan holding the ball up to look threatening in the final third. Laurie having been solid at left back all game was looking to assist those up front. Mark whipped free kick did come close to an equaliser, but on 83 minutes the metaphoric roof came off. A ball into the box was cleared, Mark played the ball to Matt who rifled the ball into the top corner with a superb strike ending his goal drought similar to that of Fernando Torres.
The final stages of the game were epic with both teams going for the win. Bexley were pushing forward with John working well supporting Adam to get the ball into the box. With these attempts to win the game sloppy mistakes were being made giving Woodside a golden opportunity to win the game. Disorganisation at the back left Woodside in a similar position to which they scored their second but this time Dan got his trailing leg to the ball to make a crucial save with the rebound hit over. Dan made his own sloppy mistake just prior to the final whistle when an attempt to take a quick free kick to Adam resulted in passing it straight back to the over team in a dangerous position which was fortunately cleared.
A point ends the losing run but with the alarmingly average performances over the games and top of the league Sporting St George next week, an improvement from the team is needed to avoid a thrashing. The manager wanted posted on this report that he was far from impressed by the defending today from every player on the pitch and expects more in future.
