Sporting Brixton Vs The Accies - Thurs 8th July (MATCH REPORT)

We started the game with only 8 men for the first half and played out most of the second half with 9 so I think its true to say that to go in at half time 1-0 down was great effort. This was in no doubt due to the superb defending at the back by Ben and Sam in goal who had a fantastic first half. We had a few fairly decent chances despite our lack of man power and looked decent going forward. I had 3 or 4 decent chances saved or narrowly wide and Greg, Thomaz and one of The Accies we had on our side had few decent long range efforts towards the end of the half.   

By half time the cavalry had arrived and we looked to start to impose ourselves on the game. However, a loose ball from a corner led to us being now 2-0 down. We didn't give up however; the introduction of Adrian (when he finally arrived) gave us an extra man to work off in the pocket between midfield and attack and the link up play started to look Barcelona like at times. They were playing a 7 man defence which was for most of the game thoroughly at the back foot but time and time again they managed to hold out with last gasp defending. Then a neat ball by Adrian over the top allowed me to control and lob the keeper and now we were back at 2-1 with 20 min's to go. The Accies had clearly started to get weary about balls through or over the top and this meant their defence started to hang deep while their midfield stayed further up the pitch. With a solid back line Ben, Sam and Mark managed to push up a bit and feed the midfield directly where the room was and while the defence still stood off, our midfield had time and space to shoot just in front of the box. Some excellent link up play in the midfield led to Thomaz finding room about 5m from the box and he launched a shot reminiscent of an RPG (can we shoot these at the NRA Sambo?). It blasted into the top right leaving the keeper for dead. We had our equaliser. Play continued and,The Accies clearly hadn't learned their lesson; minutes later Greg found a similar position and again let fly of another rocket, this time top left. From 2-0 down and most the game with 9 men, Sporting Brixton were now 3-2 up with 3 mins to go.

I should be going on to write that this was a great match and a well deserved victory however the end of this games was almost surreal. A  through ball by The Accies midfield allowed their striker to have a run on goal and a weak shot that somehow found the back of the net. Our keeper (who was actually an Accies player) sort of went to go left, saw ball go right and then just fell over leaving the ball to float past him less than an inch away from his falling hand. It wasn't over; With a minute to go, The Accies had a corner and yet another goal scramble left a free header for an Accies midfielder which he kindly accepted. We were now 4-3 down and the match over.

I'm sure with the full team we would have won, but we cannot help but be disappointed in losing the game with 3 mins out . We have to work on this for next season because this was difference between a full 3 points and zero. We had done the hard work getting back, we simply have to be more clinical in closing these games out.

Overall there were some excellent patches of play and definitely some positive points to take, just a shame about the result.

We didn't have time to have a man of the match vote but I think that it would have ended up being Ben for a superb performance in the first half and an equally impressive second. Special mention goes to Sam for spending 60 mins in goal in a very very solid display.

See you all at the next game,

Chris