The Blues never really played with any confidence in this match, but a gritty first half display ensured that we held a 1-0 advantage at half time. The goal was scored by Nick midway through the half when he broke clear of the home defence to place the ball past the keeper. Patrick was playing well in front of the back line, who too often sat deep to encourage the home team to attack our goal, and Chris was often the saviour with last ditch challenges and Jean Paul, Oliver and Sean stood firm. Both teams avoided playing the ball along the ground on a hard pitch with the result that a bouncing ball continued to cause problems for all players.

Southdown learned the lesson more effectively in the second half and applied more pressure on the Blues who could not clear their lines and looked lethargic on too many occasions. Chris pushed forward in an attempt to regain momentum and Robert replaced Luke Hayes who had battled hard up front in the first half. Sam chased hard throughout and with Marcus and Tom supporting Nick we did begin to push forward again but only managed to create half chances as we continued to ignore the easy ball and attempt some more adventurous and rushed passes. Too often these passes found the opposition and Southdown scored a deserved equaliser with 10 minutes to go as they seemed to have more strength and determination towards the end of the match. Oliver Parsons was reintroduced as the Blues struggled to regain composure but the home team scored a fine second goal from a flowing passing move, just after Charlie had secured his man of the match award with a fine diving save to his right to keep us in the match. Direct from the kick off Nick won the ball and placed a shot into the top right corner past the stranded home keeper, queue celebrations! Too early though and a loss of concentration at the very last moment allowed the home team centre forward to run on to a hopeful through ball to fire the winner past Charlie who could not do anything about it

Manager's Comments

One of our more frustrating performances. On too many occasions we rushed to kick the ball rather than seek out a team mate and sat too deep, despite vocal encouragement from the touchline. We allowed the oppostion too much space to play in front of us, but the season is still young and there are better days ahead of us!