Effra 1 MHP 4

Last night, we didn't really "turn up" in football parlance, particularly in the first half. The change in venue from our spiritual home of CP should not be offered up as an excuse. Late arrivals (myself included) and lack of thorough warm-up meant we started the game on the back foot. MHP were very comfortable on the ball, stringing five, six, seven and more passes together, particularly through the middle of the pitch. It was inevitable that they would take the lead, and soon after they grabbed a second.

We attempted, wherever possible, to play football on the proverbial deck, even at 2-0 down, and that was the most pleasing aspect of a disappointing first-half. What was a lot less pleasing was the blatant fouling by members of the MHP team, one of whom grabbed Phill Arnold by the face in an off-the-ball incident. Phill served up the best possible retribution by continually mugging the same MHP player of the ball for the rest of the match.

The half-time break couldn't come quick enough. We needed to re-group, and work together on marking tighter to give MHP less room to knock the ball around. We started the second-half much stronger, and were good value for the goal we pulled back via a "phantom touch" off of Andy Thornes from a Greg Rainey free-kick. We certainly could have made more from our set-pieces last night, with Thornes especially unlucky having seen a glancing header bounce just wide of the post from an earlier free-kick.

The more we flooded forward in search of an equaliser, the more susceptible we were to conceding, and so it was to prove to be as we eventually ended up losing 4-1.

Apologies for my tardy coaching after the game and lack of post-match team talk. I was in some discomfort thanks to a major minor surgery on my back, and was concerned about my injury. The lack of available dressing room didn't help much either!

The MOTM award goes to Phill Arnold, composed as always, even when faced by a completely hostile opposition player (although I vaguely seem to remember Phill taking the same guy out late in the second-half!).

Let's hope for a return to our more fluid passing, attacking style next week!

Keep the faith!

Joe