Final Score: Shinfield : 2 West Byfleet Blues: 5
Weather conditions: Cloudy
Match Started at: 12:07:12
Match Time: 01:25:41
Play Time: 01:25:41
Red Cards: 0
Yellow Cards: 0
Penalty Kicks: Shinfield : 1 West Byfleet Blues: 0
Free Kicks: Shinfield : 3 West Byfleet Blues: 3
Corner Kicks: Shinfield : 4 West Byfleet Blues: 5
Offsides: Shinfield : 2 West Byfleet Blues: 1
Substitutions: Shinfield : 3 West Byfleet Blues: 5
Not a great way to end the year. Playing a higher division team should have been an opportunity to test ourselves and maybe make a statement. But a woeful display put any dreams that we could play in Div4 to bed this afternoon.
Even though the game was later than usual the boys started as if they’d just rolled up for an 8am kickoff. Sluggish and asleep!!! We paid the price as WBB came out fast and on the 3rd minute made it 0-1. It was an early goal so there was no need to panic and the boys kept their cool and I had hoped this lapse would act like a alarm clock. Unfortunately…. not. Had I forgot to mention this was a cup game? Wasn’t I clear when I posted the match info? Lack of passion and leadership was outweighed by non-committal challenges and laziness. So as you can imagine WBB took advantage of this and with some sloppy defending and quick running they made it 0-2 on the 21st min. Heads dropped and from the touchline something didn’t feel right. Down 2 goals after only 20mins isn’t really a disaster but we were missing something. Even after Damon scored 7 minutes later to make it 1-2 we still struggled. Losing out on second balls, no movement, no talking (apart from bickering) and no belief. The half ended 2-3 with Damon getting his second on the 41st min but we still we’re gelling as a team didn’t feel like we wanted to win.
2nd half started as we left it. For some reason the boys looked defeated even though they were in an ideal position to scalp a Div4 team. On the 49th minute WBB strike and make it 2-4. From the touchline WBB didn’t look like the better team and we know this game should have been pretty balanced but they played as a team. Whilst we bickered and played selfishly, they just played together with one purpose. The only real chance that could have made this more interesting was when on the 63rd minute we’re awarded a penalty. If we could pull one back it would make the last 20 mins very interesting. More unnecessary negative verbiage on the field on who should take the penalty was only matched by wide attempt by Ellis. Then the final goal 6 minutes later sealed our fate, resulting in a 2-5 defeat.
So up until now you could argue that I’ve been very harsh and some may remark it wasn’t that bad of a display despite the result. But I leave you with this…with 10 mins to go we started playing football!!!! Not quite Gengen pressing or total football but the realisation that we can play better, much better. Damon and Gazza playing off each other well, crosses skipping across the keeper, tackles being won, Vinay getting into shooting positions, wining second balls, better movement, stringing together passes and most of all….playing for each other. Why didn’t we start the first 10mins like this and not the last!!!! Of course this adds to the frustration, knowing we’re a good team when it suits us. However, at some point the penny will drop when our lads figure out the ‘snooze’ button will lose you games in football.
I would like to thank WBB for a great game and congratulate EllisG for picking up the Nov player of the month award.
Reported by Sanjay