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| A fantastic performance against Tenterden in a very exciting match. I'm still not sure how we managed not to get any points from it.
As I said at the end of the first half, when we were two-nil down, there's not much difference between the teams apart from the goals, which has perhaps been the story of season. We started a bit sloppily, putting ourselves under pressure by failing to clear the ball first time. All the same, there was more than a touch of fortune about both Tenterden's first half goals. The first went in off the post and the second was a deflected clearance rather than a shot. We started to get into the game halfway through the first half, and Jamie Wickham had a great opportunity to get us back in the game when he was chased on to a good through ball from James Hutchinson and managed to beat the offside trap. Unfortunately he took too long to get his shot in and made it easy for the goalkeeper to make a save. We started the second half much better, and began to dominate the midfield. Jamie Wickham continued to be called offside, and some of the decisions were extremely suspect. After a typically determined piece of running by Greg Byrne he put in a great cross that only needed a touch from Michael Ide. Having worked our way back into the game, we went 3-1 down when Teneterden scored with probably their first attack of the second half, ten minutes from the end of the match. The boys showed great character to pick themselves up again, and we were awarded a free kick when Greg Byrne was fouled. Tom Ryan chipped a lovely ball into the area where Jamie Wickham found the net. Minutes later we were level at 3-3, when the referee decided to disregard the Tenterden linesman's hyperactive right arm and Jamie Wickham got his second goal of the game. Just when we were starting to think we might get the result our second-half performance deserved, Tenterden got a fourth goal following some indecision in defence. They were a bit apologetic afterwards, as they knew we had deserved something from the game. But that's football! We should take heart from a great performance. We can take the game to teams higher up the table, and if we can improve our goals-to-chances ratio the results will come. There were lots of great performances, particularly from Martin Hill in defence, and man-of-the-match Greg Byrne, who had to take Calpol for earache before the game, and took a couple of knocks during the game, but kept going to the end. |
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