Great morning today, not too cold or damp just a hint of sunshine to brighten up our home match against Friar Lane and Epsom.
The ground was a little soft after the past two weeks of rain so a little heavy underfoot.
The match started with a battle in midfield to gain posession.
We managed to make an early break along the left from Jack and switch of play to the right to Dan and a through ball to Evan just putting it past the left post.
Another attempt from Tom just was saved by the goalkeeper and more attempts from Ollie and Dan just putting shots wide.
A quick counter attack from Friar Lane from a long ball out wide on the left and a cross in from the touchline finding its way by our Goalkeeper and through a box full of Phoenix legs for a toe in by Friar Lane.
The game was very much up and down each way, some outstanding saves from Finn showing a good command of his area, after only five weeks of being in goal. This week Finn deserved Man of the Match with some great saves and fearless dives at attackers feet really showing no fear.
Defensively Matty, Cameron, Luke and Jack all performed well with some excellent covering and clearances out from the full backs Cameron and Luke, there were some good runs from the wingbacks Matty and Jack too.
A bit more of a battle in midfield with Lucas, Aj, Tom and Evan working hard to fight for the ball.
Upfront Massimo and Dan playing out wide on the wings made some excellent crosses in trying to find Ollie and supporting forwards Tom and Evan.
Second half we had a few more attempts on goal, but we just couldn't finish today, Massimo had a fingertip save, Tom had a crossbar freekick, Evan hit the post and Ollie went against 3 defenders only to find the goalkeepers arms.
Today our boys lacked their usual luster and it showed in the game, our movements were slow and our drive was just not fully there compared to the Phoenix we know and love.
On any other week we would have won comfortably with our style of play and the team effort that we give.
Friar Lane although winning were not the better team nor did they have the better of play, they just wanted the win more than us.
We did perform better in the second half but we were struggling to find a string of successful passes and exploiting the gaps between the lines.
Once again I will say, I'm still proud of these boys and this is our first loss in 6 matches so not a major defeat, we have to pick ourselves up and re-adjust our attitudes and we will be back to our winning ways.
These kids of ours are resilient and need to know that from a defeat can come a success in learning, not only on how to deal with downs, but look forward at them being major ups in learning new ways to play.
Big thanks to resident Linesman Danny and all our wonderful parents cheering us on from the sidelines.
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