Effra 1 Sporting Brixton 3

In what was overall a fairly one-sided game, I think we can count ourselves lucky to have only lost 3-1 tonight. We continued to not do the simple things right, much as we did last week, in gifting the opposition time and space on the ball, and thus allowing them to literally pass their way through or around us. I meant what I said after the game, this was by far our worst performance of the year.

We went 1-0 down due to a penalty conceded by Barry Gardener. I think only Barry can explain why he did what he did in giving away a penalty. His rash handball has been the only black mark against his name this year having performed so strongly previously. Barry has made himself a first choice at centre-back recently, and there's no doubt we miss him when he's not there.

There was a collective effort during the first-half to weather the storm, and I think we can count ourselves somewhat fortunate to have gone in to the half-time team talk only 1 down. Unfortunately, my half-time team talk took on a familiar sound, with me having to repeat the same comments I made a week earlier. "Get tighter, don't let them turn, keep our shape, close them down quicker," these are all well used terms in football, but our inability to do these things quickly and efficiently tonight was our undoing.

All due respect to our well organised opposition. There's no doubting that Sporting Brixton are an effective team. They were cohesive, calm in possession, and made their passing and movement count. These were things that I could recently say about us, and it is this style of confident, assured football that we all must strive for on a weekly basis if we are to carry some promising early signs in to a full blown rout of the teams we come up against this year.

Our consolation came courtesy of a Caldwell cross and a Mesner finish. Those two, along with MOTM Marney, worked tirelessly during their time on the pitch, despite the fact they very rarely received the service their hard work deserved.

We all have to up our game for next week if we are to reverse what could become a horrible run of winless matches. We all - I hope - would agree that we can do much better. Certainly our run of victories earlier this year saw us play some of the best football ever produced by The Accies. We need to get back to that winning philosophy, which is built on the solid foundations of a tight defence, and a cohesive team that is working its collective socks off for each other. We lost our way in the final third tonight and didn't create anywhere near as many goalscoring chances as I've come to expect this year. The remedy for this is to keep possession of the ball, and return to our "control, pass, move" mantra.

We can, and we will, do better next week against Dolphin I'm sure.

Keep the faith!

Joe