WE SUFFER OUR FIRST HOME DEFEAT OF THE SEASON
In a contest between youth and experience it was the older heads that won the day to run out clear winners. Two rather fortunate goals in the first quarter of the match gave Stotfold a huge advantage and they never really looked like they would loosen their grip on the game.
We started in our usual way, trying to play out from the back and playing to feet and we dominated the early possession. Our opponents were happy to let us have the ball in our own half but quickly shut us down once we crossed the half way line. So although we saw a lot of the ball we didn’t cause Stotfold too many problems.
Despite a reasonable start we were knocked back when we conceded goals in the 12th and 19th minute. The first came about when a shot was partially blocked but spun up in the air and rather conveniently fell to the unmarked Scott Piggott who had the easy task to nod the ball into an empty net. Seven minutes later the task facing us got that much tougher when we conceded an own goal.
We tried to carry on playing in our usual style but we made little headway against a well drilled defence that frequently caught us off side when we tried to mix things up by going long.
The visitors looked dangerous on the break and Ollie Keil had to make a close range save. We did have some opportunities when Frankie Hercules got away a few times down our right wing and he did produce some fine crosses but we failed to get on the end of them. At half time Stotfold looked in a very commanding position and we had a lot to do to get back in the game.
We did do much better at the start of the second half by breaking through the oppositions strong defence a number of times to create some good scoring chances. Giuseppe Delgaudio, Leo Farruch and Etham Goulding all had opportunities but we failed to take advantage of them and in truth we didn’t test the oppositions keeper. Eventually we ran out of steam and Stotfold ran out deserved 2-0 winners.
A disappointing evening especially after the superb performance we put in against Biggleswade United in our last game and for the fact that Giuseppe Delgaudion was given a straight red card 2 minutes from time and will miss 3 games. It was also disappointing to lose our 100% home record (albeit after only 4 games) and fail to score for the first time this season but it was no disgrace to lose to a strong Stotfold team who played exceptionally well.
Despite the disappointment our young players will learn from the experience and be all the better for it. Our next fixture this coming Saturday will be another testing game when we travel to league leaders Crawley Green. Our opponents play on an artificial surface which should suit us and hopefully we can bounce back and get a point or three.
Team: O Keil, E Hearn, M Ellis (H Mead 77), Frankie Hercules (J Morris 77), Ethan Goulding (O Butler 70), Giuseppe Delgaudio, G Carbery (Capt), J Stevens, L Farruch, C Miller, G Oppong (D Pobbe 70). Subs not used: T Brazier.
Crowd: 66