Back down to earth with a bump as Claygate rattled four goals passed us in what can only be described as a disappointing Blues performance. With a couple of changes forced on the side through injuries Alex stepped into goal and Mike B returned to midfield. The Blues however started really poorly in drizzly rain at the Varsity and were 3-0 down after 20 minutes. Going forward Ed was the primary threat but, as usual, his control was poor and it was Alex W who had the only shot of any real note.In the second half we made two changes with Ellis making his debut and Dominic replacing Jack. Unfortunately within a minute of the restart Claygate went four up after some good strong running from their striker and a quality finish from an angle. After this, in the centre of midfield, Mike Petri "woke up" and Tom O began to dominate and the Blues started to look more threatening. Blues won a penalty when Mike P made a great run but had his legs taken from him as he drove into the box. Typical of his performance and the Blues' day though, Ed blasted it over. Shortly after Alex W replaced Ed and Ellis moved up front to join him with Jack rejoining the game on the wing. There were periods after this change where we played some good football but our end result was poor until some great interchange between Ellis and Alex W put Dominic through to score a well worked goal.
I was very disappointed that we didn't give Claygate more of a game. We were effectively out of the game within the first twenty minutes and this made for a long and frustrating afternoon. In the second half we played better but still we showed only glimpses of our real potential. Ellis & Dominic both made positive impacts today and Tom O and (in the second half) Mike Petri both played well. Up front we only really looked threatening in the final quarter as Ed was stranded up there on his own for much of the match. We face a very tough game next Sunday at Farncombe and we are going to have to improve a lot on today's efforts to even get close to a result there!
Man of the Match - Tom Oldland
Claygate have quickly found our weak spots and were exploding long balls to their fast wing runners.
ReplyDeleteOur boys played well in the middle of the park, had few half chances and few clear goal opportunities. On another day we could have come away with at least a draw.
'Frustrating game' and we have conceded early goals making it hard for ourselves. Defence were slow to cut supply,
but overall there were some good hard battling football, good signs of goals to come. Big Welcome to Ellis who played very well today, when he settles he will be a great asset to the team.
oh!! and a big thanks to our boys for not reacting to some foul language used by the opposition.