| Match Report |
I apologise in for the lack of match reports of late, due to work commitments, poor results and the shock of scoring I have not kept you all updated. In summary the 2s marched on to the semi-final of the cup beating Sidmouth and Ottery with relative ease 6-0, played atrociously against Bridgwater and lost 2-0 and put in an improved but not great performance to draw 1-1 with Taunton Vale on the smurf turf at Hogwarts.This leads us to Saturday’s game. With availability issues and last minute changes it was not the best preparation for the early dawn start. It was clear from the first 10 minutes that the 9:30 start and poor weather conditions did not suit the home team. With blinding sun one minute, hail the next and what can only be described as ice cream head to half your body and face it was not ideal conditions. This sluggish start lead to Ashmoor taking an early 2 goal lead before the 2s really got started. Towards the end of the first half the home side started to play some hockey but Ashmoor sat deep and countered when the opportunity arose. The 2s were lucky to only be down by 2 at the break. It’s never a good sign when one of the umpires says to you at half time that, “that wasn’t a very good first half”. The situation was made even worse when it became clear that Ross Launce would not be able to continue due to an on-going injury leaving the home side with the bare 11 for the remainder of the game.The 2nd half started as the 1st finished with the home side dominating possession and Ashmoor putting all eleven behind the ball. They had become less effective on the break and had resorted to aerieling the ball out of the defence allowing wave after wave of attacks for the 2s. The movement was much better in the 2nd half but there was no final product at the end until with 9 minutes to go the breakthrough was finally made. Sam Blonden picked the ball up outside the 22 and fired a ball into the D, an unsighted keeper reacted late and inadvertently deflected the ball into his own goal. Game on! Steve Wilson came close to scoring but was thwarted by the goalkeeper and no other real opportunities were created. The 2s slipped to their second consecutive home loss and slipped down to 7th in the table.On the plus side the umpire said it was a much better 2nd half and that it had been one of the easiest games to umpire all season. Although Ben Coltham did continue his run of yellow cards for the team the attitude was much better. Surprisingly MOM went to Chris Ryan and unsurprisingly DOD went to Steve Wilson (although Josh Dale Burrows was a contender for forgetting the blazer the previous week and saying that he was unable to catch up with Chris dribbling with the ball!) |