Bournemouth Electric
U16's 3 Greenfields U16's 1
Sunday 30th
March, 2014
Venue: Bournemouth
Electric Sports Ground, Bournemouth
It's like that phone call you never
want to make; that job that needs doing, but that fills you with
dread because it's more labour than love. That's how I felt about
writing this report. Another game, another defeat, another write up.
The irony is that as the first half
progressed, we played some lovely stuff, carving out chance after
chance, but never quite managing the killer touch. Trouble is, by the
time we started to play in this fashion, we were already 2 goals
adrift. An annoyingly simple goal to defend - a through ball that we
were out-muscled on, and which their striker finished easily -
followed by a rebound off a defender that fell rather fortuitously
into the same player's path and which left him with an easy finish -
and we were left with a distinctly uphill task. During our purple
patch, we pulled a goal back on 20 minutes when Sam neatly headed
home Luke's corner, and proceeded to open them up on numerous
occasions, particularly down their right flank, where Seb and Alex,
ably supported by the impressive Charlie at left back, caused all
sorts of problems. Although our shooting boots deserted us for the
most part, we were also let down today by some decidedly dodgy
decisions by the referee and linesman. None more so than just before
the break, when our incessant pressure appeared to have paid off with
an incisive finish by Seb for an equalizer, only for it to be ruled
out by the assistant's flag who wrongly ruled the 'goal' offside. It
clearly wasn't as Seb was at least a yard onside and it doesn't
matter that Jeremy was, because he wasn't interfering with play.
Thoughts of opticians appointments and creative ideas about where to
put his flag abounded as the half came to an end with us feeling hard
done by and still trailing 2-1.
It would be great to say that we just
picked up where we left off at the beginning of the 2nd half, but
although we huffed and puffed, our momentum had gone. Half time came
too soon for us. The nearest we came to scoring was when Luke hit the
side netting on 50 minutes, but its difficult to recall much else in
the way of chances. Other 'notables' included a great save from Matt
in goal, deputizing for the injured Jake, point blank from a header;
an accomplished performance from Paul at the back, returning after
injury and Matt, rushing out of his goal with great gusto and
attempting to boot the ball as far away as he could to give him time
to get back in his goal, only to see with horror the ball bounce back
off the fence to one of their players waiting to take a quick throw
on!
Finally, on 65 minutes, you knew it
wasn't going to be our day when the referee wrongly gave a penalty
when their striker fell over without much encouragement, and the
resulting spot kick put paid to any thoughts of a comeback. Thanks
Ref, nice one. As one of my fellow sufferers on the touchline
remarked, when Tom upended their striker in the area later on and
there was no reaction from the same official - the failure to award a
penalty on this occasion, told you all you needed to know about the
first decision. Whatever the quibbles though, we lost 3-1 with two
bad decisions, an unlucky break, a poorly defended goal, and lots of
wayward finishing.
However, I still believe we have good players
and after 2 excellent performances against Moordown, and a superb
half an hour today before the break, notwithstanding poor finishing,
we certainly have the ability to perform against quality opposition.
Every reason then to look forward to games against Branksome home and
away!
