Vets 1 return to unwinning ways (again)

TEAM:

Martin

4-4-2

Bentham, Macdonald, Glover, Morris

Lewis, Ledbury, Waite, Prestegaerd,

Harbusch, Francey

SUB:

Clarke

Vets 1 return to unwinning ways (again)

Having played particularly well for the past 2 games, and even won our last outing, the mood was buoyant ahead of this match against beatable opponents. A win today, and the other results going in our favour would leave us just 3 points behind that safe spot 4th from bottom. Spirits were good, with bets being taken for how many minutes Bentham would last this week, and the squad was strong – to the extent that Mike Clarke was on the bench - but somehow things never happened. Was it the minute’s silence they requested before the game, or the presence of Pierre as ref, or the lack of grass on the pitch? Unfortunately Vets 1 slipped back into our bad habits of not holding the ball in midfield & defending too deep, and, with the forwards getting particularly poor ball, we failed to contrive a single chance from open play in the whole game

The game started at a fair old pace, with no one managing to hold on to the ball. Glover was able to dribble the ball out of defence on a couple of occasions with a class that Doug Rougvie Willie Miller would have been proud of. However, the ball tended to return quicker than he did. Harbusch was having to drop deep to pick up the ball, leaving Francey isolated up front. The first real talking point was a controversial free kick given just outside our box, when Bentham was adjudged to have tackled from behind, even though he clearly played the ball from the side. (A similar decision came later following a similar challenge from Ledbury in the middle of the park.) The wall stood firm – as indeed did the whole of the defence for most of the game. And so the game drifted to half time without troubling the scoreboard.

The half-time team talk sought to iron out the shortcomings, and reinstall the pre-match confidence. But normal service was resumed when the game restarted. Then, 10 minutes into the 2nd half, disaster struck. A long throw from their left wing was flicked on, and their bespectacled number 6 got to the ball half a yard ahead of Prestegaard to strike a crisp half volley into the corner – giving Martin no chance. We responded by bringing on Clarke for Prestegaard at left midfield, and did in fact take the game to them for much of the remaining 25 minutes. But for some reason, we couldn’t manage to get a single decent throughpass or cross in. One free kick forced their goalkeeper to catch the ball. And from a corner, a flick on from Harbusch gave Lewis a chance to steer the ball goalwards from 6 yards out (reminiscent of Solskjaer’s 93rd minute Champion’s League winner, we were reminded afterwards). The only difference was their defender managed to head the ball off the line.

This attacking pressure left us open to a number of counter attacks, on which, not for the first time ever, the referee did not spot a single offside position. On one such attack, Martin was almost so furious lambasting the referee to bother about a shot which came back off the post. In fact the referee was so bemused, he stopped the game and gave a goal kick.

The final whistle signaled yet another defeat against a team that was not much better than us, but had managed on the day to string a few passes together. MOM went to Scott Macdonald for another solid defensive display. With the 4th bottom team also winning, the result means further difficulties for the rest of the season –with Francey now living in Scotland, and availability not good for next week’s scrap away to Tourinnois. In short, things do not augur well for 1st Division survival – but stranger things have happened.

MOM: Scott Macdonald