Engine setup to be hard to break down with a revised back four and 5 man midfield leaving andy c up front on his lonesome. Bishops Tatch lying third in the league looked lively from the off but engine managed to carve out a couple of good early chances which were narrowly missed and then put wide. The wind was immediately a telling factor in the game and with a stand in ref was not shaping up to be a classic.
As bishops tatch chased down a long ball Gaz w passed the ball back at pace to keeper Jonny S , unfortunately jonny had been watching his bruce grobelaar dance video and tried to go round the onrushing attacker only to give the ball to him and wave his arms in the air shouting my fault…………..no sh*t Sherlock.
having said this jonnys kept us in it a lot of times and will hoof it next time ! ;-)
So another error cost us but from this point on we still looked solid especially at the back and the wingers were seeing much more of the ball. Despite the lack of confidence from the gaffer in burbs ability to keep “ricky the ponce” quiet he was doing an excellent job with ash and steve clattering him whenever he got near the ball also.
Another few chances came and went with Idi doing everything to jink through the defence only to poke the ball wide. Towards the end of the half we started to shut off a bit and started mispassing badly , but sparrow was marshalling the area well and we survived a few corners to come in at half time one down but blatently in the game.
Importantly we now had the wind. The side remained unchanged and we kicked off. The game was starting to get more aggressive now and challenges were flying in which suited the engine midfields style. Gaffer had warned about jumping in but a few to many free kicks were still being awarded. In an effort to change things and introduce fresh legs andy c was replaced by ren and jim p moved up front essentially with his brother. Ash was getting busy down the wing and a through ball chased down saw ash hacked down by the keeper but nothing from the ref. Further pressure from the engine and with BT defending for their lives the crowd thought it was only a matter of time before Engine equalised. Ash was replaced by nick due to his knee playing up and ginger dave was brought on to allow stu to move into the middle as Als cramps go the best of him.
Some good work in the middle by idi saw steve get the ball and unleash a rocket from outside the box that hit the underside of the bar , bounce off the ground and be collected by the keeper (more bad luck for the engine!) as the ref didn’t award the goal. I couldn’t see it but the guys reckoned it was in.
Engine basically battered BT for the second half with stuey will showing some class on the ball and some marauding runs, ren being strong in the tackle, but we could not score and a good save one on one from sparrow kept the score at one nil. Major disappointment, yet another team who we were better than but who escaped castle farm with a win.
So what have we learnt.
- We are getting better in the air,we seemed to really want it Sunday which was good to see by the gaffer and the supporters.
- Errors still cost us.
- We have not been lucky ……
- We mustn’t jump in when not needed , especially against quick footed players.
- We are improving every week.
- We still need to work on retaining the ball better, we do not need to pass the ball like it’s a hot pototoe, we can have more time on the ball.
- We looked good defensivly !
- Everyone needs to chase balls down they lose, dropping your head and stopping running will not help the team, anything less than 100% when others are working like bitches will end up in you being subbed…….
All is not lost, we are improving , we will start winning, I am still strengthening where needed. Onto warwick saints away , PUE !! !! ! !
And yes, Nick contacted the wrong bloody referee……..
