Headstone Manor YFC

Match Report - 21st March 2010

The Bs up and down season continued as they followed their brilliant win at champions Charville with this disappointing home defeat by Hanwell. With four games to go this season, the Bs need every point they can get now as there are just two points separating the bottom five teams.

For the second week running the Bs were desperately short of players. Last week they had no subs, today they played virtually the entire first half with nine players. Hanwell were also short with just ten. When the numbers were even it made a big difference to the Bs. They had much more possession but struggled to create meaningful chances.

Even when they were a player short the Bs should have been able to hold their own. That meant being organised, getting bodies back behind the ball fast and keeping their shape but they didn’t all do it well enough. As a result the Bs paid the penalty by conceding two goals in the opening 16 minutes.

With both teams short of players there was plenty of space to exploit. The Bs did have opportunities to break out but tried to hit CJ, the lone striker, much too early. Consequently he was outnumbered, was too far from any support and Hanwell’s backline tidied up with ease. The Bs did have a couple of opportunities this half though. Russ fired a free kick past the wall which the keeper dived low to stop. A well worked move saw CJ deliver a great cross but Tom’s header lacked power.

The Bs best players were Ali and Russ who showed great energy and determination. Ali was really solid at the back and also looked to go forward to create chances. The Bs were undone though by conceding a horribly soft goal right on half time. From a corner the ball struck the far post and trickled along and then over the line with no-one intervening.

If they’d come in 0-2 down, with even numbers, it wouldn’t have been too much to get back. 0-3 was asking a lot though. The Bs pushed Russ into midfield and played Ali, Joe and Kyle at the back. They had much more of the ball but time and time again their close control let them down. In addition, with good breaks on, the quality of the through passes was poor. So many times the pass struck the covering defender or was directed behind the intended player. As a result there were too few testing chances and only Russ looked like he might score.

At the other end Hanwell controlled the ball well, their defence was physically stronger and they had players who ran brilliantly with the ball evading challenges. Hanwell sealed the game with a penalty on the hour after one of their forwards was checked as he raced in on goal. The ref looked to play advantage as he tried to stay on his feet but as the ball ran away from him blew for the spot kick which was blasted high past Stephen.

Ten minutes later the Bs finally had some joy with a goal typical of Russ’s determination. Shomari made a great run down the left and sent in a brilliant low cross. CJ was slow to react and the ball flew past him and there followed a comedy of errors as the Bs had four chances to bury it before Russ took charge and almost broke the net with his close range shot.

Ali took the man of the match trophy though Russ pushed him close as he did much more than his fair share of the work. But Ali was brilliant, a really commanding, composed and confident display. He could have played in any position and would have shone.