And we're back...

COWHC 3s 1-4 Purley Walcountians 5s

18th January 2014

And I'm already late in getting the match report out!  Anyway, the first match back after the excesses of the festive season was away at PWs against the bunch of kids we had played earlier in the season.  It's probably no coincidence that the match was played at 4, giving them plenty of time to get back after playing for their school (probably).

They're a pretty talented lot it has to be said, and we knew we were going to be in for another tough game.  But we had a strong squad and actually a couple of substitutes for once!  The early exchanges were pretty even I would say, with Kieran Lewis (back from uni for the week) and Andrew in particular putting in some hard running up front and giving the opposition something to think about.

Unfortunately it was the opposition who made the breakthrough.  A short corner was played out to the right side of the D (as we defended it) and the flicked shot found the net via a slight deflection off my arm.  It was well taken, but I probably could have done more to stop it.  Fortunately from the re-start we went straight up to the other end of the pitch and, from a long corner on the left, the ball was worked to the top right of the D from where Andrew finished with aplomb.

We were only able to remain at parity slightly longer than PWs had been in the lead.  A move down our right looked to be running out of steam until a long ball was played cross field and one of the youngsters had slipped away from his marker and scored.

The game ebbed and flowed for the rest of the half with no change in the score.  2-1 down at half time was not a bad situation as we felt we were still in with half a chance of getting something out of the game.

However, it was in the second half that the difference in fitness showed, with the youngsters being that half a yard quicker and getting to the ball often just in front of us.  That meant they had more pressure than in the first half, and eventually it told.  They extended their lead again from a short corner, and again I'm disappointed with myself for it.  From the top of the D the ball was played to someone half way towards the penalty spot and just off to the right.  He shot back over towards the left where I was on the post and got my stick to the ball, unfortunately only managing to deflect it into the goal rather than away.

We had enough chances of our own though to cut the deficit with a number of shorts of our own, but unfortunately they never quite came off.

PW's fourth came towards the end of the match, and was similar to their second goal in that the ball went from one side of the D to the other and found a player not being marked.

It was as hard a game as we expected, but I think we can be quite proud of our performance.

POM was Paul for pulling off a number of saves that helped keep the score down.