Saints salvaged local pride when they grabbed a last gasp equaliser against Burpham. In a game that the Saints dominated it was only what they deserved in a match that saw Burpham only trouble Josh twice. Kevin's match report is below; "Although we were pretty disjointed today we bossed the game for much of the time. The only shot on target, other than the goal, Josh saved well, so when you think that we restricted the opposition to only two shots on target over 80 minutes that's not too bad. What was evident, however, is that once again we were running down blind alleys and not playing the simple ball like we did last week.
Saints thought they had taken the lead when the ref shouted "play on" and Mike D crossed for Tom to power a header past the 'keeper, but the linesman had his flag up and after consultation the referee inexplicably reversed his decision and awarded a free kick to Burpham - this was incredibly disheartening and, even when the referee tried to explain why he had changed his mind at half time, that just puzzled me even more!! Although we went close a couple times we could not find the back of the net. We might not have found the net... but Burpham certainly did when a speculative shot from outside the box skidded out of Josh's hands and into the goal shortly before the interval.
In the second half Saints tried to step up a gear but, to their growing frustration the referee again ruled out a legitimate goal when Tom R's free kick squirmed under the 'keeper only for Mike D to be judged offside despite the fact that he was running back towards our goal. Even though I tried to change things around nothing seemed to be working and it was not until the last minute that Julien crossed the ball and Mike D volleyed home against his former club. This was nothing more than Saints deserved - although I view this as two points dropped rather than one gained!
We really need to play to our strengths which is to keep it simple and play at pace. If we do that then we can outplay most sides, but we also need to realise that we need to win our personal battles throughout the 80 minutes to achieve positive results."
Man of the Match - Mike Donne
Saints thought they had taken the lead when the ref shouted "play on" and Mike D crossed for Tom to power a header past the 'keeper, but the linesman had his flag up and after consultation the referee inexplicably reversed his decision and awarded a free kick to Burpham - this was incredibly disheartening and, even when the referee tried to explain why he had changed his mind at half time, that just puzzled me even more!! Although we went close a couple times we could not find the back of the net. We might not have found the net... but Burpham certainly did when a speculative shot from outside the box skidded out of Josh's hands and into the goal shortly before the interval.
In the second half Saints tried to step up a gear but, to their growing frustration the referee again ruled out a legitimate goal when Tom R's free kick squirmed under the 'keeper only for Mike D to be judged offside despite the fact that he was running back towards our goal. Even though I tried to change things around nothing seemed to be working and it was not until the last minute that Julien crossed the ball and Mike D volleyed home against his former club. This was nothing more than Saints deserved - although I view this as two points dropped rather than one gained!
We really need to play to our strengths which is to keep it simple and play at pace. If we do that then we can outplay most sides, but we also need to realise that we need to win our personal battles throughout the 80 minutes to achieve positive results."
Man of the Match - Mike Donne
What a travesty of justice!
ReplyDeleteThis was easily a 3-1 victory. Lads. You were robbed! Due entirely to a very weak referee and an extremely dodgy referees assistant!
Don't be disheartened. You certainly deserved a victory. Well done for not letting your heads go down, and for keeping on pressing for the equalising goal.
If you had some "Fergie time", you would undoubtably secured the victory.
Well done 'Green Army'