A 12:30 kick-off on the hottest day of the year. Are we trying to kill someone ?
Lots of withdrawals before the match left us with 3 subs, including a phone call to Stylesy to bring his boots, and a pit stop at DaveO's to pick his boots up. And then Jordan decides to go to Luton, and therefore miss most of the game.
However, we have our new kit. An eye-wateringly bright combination of yellow and black. Surely that, and the sun, will guarantee us a win ?
The game started well, with everyone trying to remember what Jose had said about keeping the ball and saving our energy. Passes flashed around, and we seemed not to be out of our depth. Frightening, really. They had several raids on our goal, but Darren, promoted to starting by Jordan's awayday jaunt, did what had to be done efficiently when called upon. The two lines of four seemed to be paying off, and after 15 minutes Jose put Cam through on goal. Bugger me, we're one up ! And well worth it.
The first half continued in much the same vein, with a breakthrough looking unlikely until a speculative shot from the edge of the box crept under the diving Darren for the equaliser. Substitutions had been made to rest those suffering from the heat, and that lead to an overlap on the left after approach work down our right, and the Shanger winger fired in past Darren's despairing dive. OK, they were mounting most of the attacks, but we we're more than worth the lead. After a water break, the half resumed for more of the same.
So, 1-1 at half time.
The second half was worse, all attempts to play keep-ball failed miserably, and Shanger started to overrun the defense. A speculative shot from outside the box went over Colin, and past the unsighted Robin and Darren for 2-1. Sometimes a goal is a team failing, unfortunately the third was down to Paul, who chopped the Shanger forward down in the box when he had overhit his through ball. Penalty, and 3-1.
Concerted pressure on our goal lead to Robin clearing off the line twice in quick succession, and other shots being blocked.
The final nail in the coffin was supplied from a flying header from the edge of the 6 yard box by a Shanger player who lost his marker, which flew in over Robin's (admittedly rubbish) leap. 4-1.
I don't remember exactly when it happened, but Colin and Santo decided to sandwich a Shanger player, which ended up with Colin receiving multiple lacerations and Santo walked away smiling. There was blood, opinion was that Colin was going to kill someone, but the dark passenger did not materialise and the Shanger player kept his legs.
General concensus afterwards was that we didn't deserve to lose 4-1, and that we would have made a better fist of it with a full squad.
As well as Darren, ADG played his normal solid game at right back, the defence as a whole played well, Colin managed to stay on his feet for the majority of the game, but left back needs sorting out. Either MartinB stays there, or we audition another person in that spot.
The midfield lost it's shape, partly due to subs and the heat, and ended chasing shadows. Probably to shelter in. Rob was Rob, tackling heading & passing as per. Santo needs to work on his stamina. Michael needs to play in a hat, or he's going to burn big time.
Jose popped up all over the place, even as centreback, but in a good way, and Cam could/should have got a few more.
Andrew thought he was appearing in a Wham! video from the 80's. Worrying attire there boy.
At least I got a nice tan, and the post match hotdogs in the bar were excellent. Should we see Sue about getting our own ground ? Long term, perhaps something could be done on the training pitches.
*edit* As pointed out to me, the true highlight of the game was when the Shanger attacker got through on Jordan in goal, lifted the ball over the advancing keeper, and the ball burst. And he didn't even get a bounce up ! Quality.
