RAVENS V SHENLEY

Subs

• Stokes

• Grady

I could simply say go back a few weeks and read the Cadbury report to summarise this game. So many similarities but possibly the goals we conceded this time were even weaker.

For 20 minutes we held out and managed to establish a foothold in the game and then just when we were beginning to push forward we conceded a very poor goal that set us back, just as we did at Cadbury.

The 1^st four goals here were all headed goals. The 1^st 3 were free headers. Stevo has held his hand up to a couple of them as he was rooted to his line when he should have come to collect balls that were his. Still, everybody else should ask why these players were not tracked into our area and challenged. Every goal was just far too easy.

This game saw us trying to defend with only half of our team. The defenders fought tremendously hard through the game with very little support from what was in front of them. We have a couple of players who were very quick to support in attack but very slow in getting back to defend.

The biggest problem and the main difference between the sides was that when we had the ball, Shenley dropped into their formation and made it hard for us to get through. When we lost the ball, we had too many players who failed to get back where they should be to make us difficult to break down.

Our only real chance fell to Halloran, who controlled Jackos pass and fired his shot over the bar. Other than that it was all Shenley in a game where the ball just kept coming back from the midfield area.

James made a positive impact and showed plenty of heart when being thrown on in a lost cause. Peter showed true grit and seemed to be the one player who was prepared to put his foot on the ball and look for a pass.

We move on with our next game away at Knowle. This time last year this was a Championship decider. How the tables have turned for both teams. Let’s look to finish the season on a high with 2 performances to lead us on to Cadbury and the Cup Final.

Steve