What a glorious April day to host Witham, who we know are a good side in our division. After recent players being away, were able to field 8 of our 10 Vikings.
We started the game really well, with Rohan deputising in goal for Josh, and Cullen, Henry, Joe & Jess on pitch. There was a good apporach and especially liked Henry's control and composure on the ball, being alert and linking up others. Cullen was his usual strong self in the middle, with livewire Joe and our quiet assasin Jess as part of the quartet. Jess made some early runs, alongside Joe and we tested them early. Joe made a lovely pass to Jess, who saw her early shot well saved. Joe also made a great tackle and let rip a nice shot that just went wide.
Despite this start, for some reason, confidence dropped and we let slip some early goals mid way through the half and to be fair the first 2 were against play. Sadly we let our heads drop and our play didnt hold up. Cullen was getting on the ball but a combination of good defending and poor spacial awareness meant we got hemmed in. Josh, Bastien and Angus came on and tried to get us back into the game but with the slope and sloopy play at this point we were up against and shipped some more goals. Rohan, who stepped up on the day to cover Josh made a couple of good saves although one was with his face from a thunderbolt. 2nd time this year, poor fella !
Going in half time with a mountain to climb, saw us change the team around. Angus went in goal and although we conceded a goal to a strong run and finish, we quickly got 2 back. First was a Own Goal from a cracking corner from Joe, the 2nd a nice finish from Josh after another corner from Joe. We looked back on it at this point but we then stopped marking their deep player and they scored 3 in reply.
Late in Jess saw an opportunity and she turbo charged her run and smashed teh ball into bottom corner - which I have seen before and just need her to do this more often as she is unstoppable when she does. Angus saved us with 3 awesome 1 on 1 saves, against their best player. He had the bit between his teeth and was great goal keeping. Bastien was again, doing his mazy dribbles and with his movement, if he could master the composure on the shot would have been on the scoresheet today for sure. Joe and Cullen continued to probe and fight well for the break, and a couple of times we saw great saves from their keeper - Joe and Cullen having top corner shots saved and to be fair other teams would have conceded. Rohan has shown he can defend and he was shutting down and harrying the opposition. With all of them today, the positional was the challenge both receiving on Goal Kicks but also making space to make it easier for each other.
I think it was Josh that decided he was playing FIFA18 and took a player from behind in the box - Penalty. Their goal keeper stepped up and Angus saved it well. The game ended and probably one of big frustration for me as we didnt show our best and the score didnt reflect our strengths. But a lesson to learn for next week.
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