Squad:

 
Lawrence
Jim
Colin
Rob
Kevin
Les
Mick
Chris

So our return to league action after a lengthy break in games with our first challenge since the league split against old foes Herne Bay.  It must be said that our opponents are not quite the same team that won every game last season but they still have a number of ex semi pro players along with a familiar face who had a notable birthday last week. They do still however pose a challenge, are still very well organised and are fiercely competitive, not giving an inch with any success that might come your way being well deserved.

As the score might suggest this was a tight affair with defences on top, Herne Bay did have the ball in the net early on but it was rightly ruled out due to encroachment in the area, we did have a few chances as we either shot straight at the keeper or wide of the target. The away team did have a brief period of trying a new tactic to break our rhythm by hiding the ball in the trees behind the goal we were defending, ultimately abandoning the idea as the half came to a close.

The second half saw us with lots of possession as we only really conceded speculative efforts on our goal with anything on target ably dealt with by Lawrence, unfortunately we couldn’t quite turn our dominance in to a goal as again we were mainly wide of the target and didn’t really test the away keeper enough. The effort we all put in to break the deadlock couldn’t be faulted but alas it wasn’t to be and we had to settle for a point.  Although this felt a little disappointing as we left the pitch we should all be pleased with our overall performance and on reflection this draw can be used as a positive in the games to come.

From a defensive point of view a third clean sheet in a row is very satisfying and if we can maintain this level of intensity in the remaining matches we can have a say in who will eventually top the league table.

Thanks to Chris Smith for refereeing and keeping everything under control, it could have been a difficult game with neither team giving any quarter but was played out in good spirit, a good advert for how walking football should be played.