Report

On Saturday we travelled to Dedham looking to avenge a heavy defeat from last season. Daylight was without Owen, Brady and Andy but welcomed back Stu, also Zac was back from injury and Chay after 2  M.O.M performances for the Reserves stepped up and all these 3 starting from the bench. A few of the lads thought they would create a happy atmosphere by being late, which went down well!! Despite this we started the game the better of the teams and caused the home team some early problems, but some good defending saw Tom English have his goalbound shot blocked. Tom Moore was looking lively and skinned the full back a couple of times but once again we were denied with the keeper saving well from the initial shot and then the following cross coming to nothing. Pagey then forced a great save from the keeper who tipped on to the bar- a goal kick was somehow the outcome. The home team, as always, looked lively on the break and caused a few problems going forward but despite this we looked in control. We were playing ok, looking a liitle lacklustre at times and we were soon punished when a foul on the home winger saw the resultant free kick find it's way directly in to the goal to make it 1-0. Some great play from Mikey and Pagey nearly saw us come up with a response but Mikey drove his shot wide. The keeper then produced a great save from a Brooksy header. Another good break from the home team caused us problems again although we managed to scramble clear. With less than a minute to go, the Ref finally realised there were 2 teams playing and we were awarded a penalty when Mikey drove in to the box after some good link up play with Pagey before being brought down. Up stepped Tom English but once again the keeper saved.   HT 1-0    Chay was introduced at the break, we looked to be on top but there was definately a lot more for us to offer with our finishing and final ball sometimes letting us down. We were sometimes in too much of a rush to get it forward. Chay made an immediate impact when his run found Tom English who laid the ball back in to Chay and his goalbound shot was deflected past the keeper to make it 1-1 after less than 2 minutes. Straight from kick off we turned the ball over and Mikey and Pagey linked up with Mikey being fouled on the edge of the box. Tom English made no mistake this time and curled in to the bottom corner from 20 yards to make it 1-2. We looked threatening everytime with the players now making the right choices and playing some free flowing football. After 10 minutes of the half we looked to take complete control when Tom English and Pagey linked up to find Mikey, who drove in to the box and found the bottom corner to make it 1-3. The boys were in complete control now, Pagey could have added another but his touch from a Tom English shot went over. With us missing a couple of good opportunities to put the game to bed we switched off and after halfway through the half we allowed the home team to make it 2-3 when we should have done more to stop the cross. Zac came on for Catney; with the home teams tails up we defended well and with 14 minutes to go we put the game to bed after Tom Moore found Tom English, whose pass found Pagey, who finished superbly to make it 2-4. Stu now came on for Brooksy and we saw the game out comfortably.  FT 2-4
A very good performance in the second half but the boys need to concentrate more and realise how good they can be if they do this. Daylight is buying them all watches so there are no deaths at games in the future. The boys are training Tuesday this week as Pagey and Mikey have been selected for the Rep team who are playing Wednesday. Unfortunately Mikey can't play but we will be supporting Pagey at Brightlingsea 7.45pm kick off.