Squad:

Lawrence
Jim
Colin
Rob
Chris
Kevin
George
Les
Paul

The score line would suggest a comfortable victory for the home side but this was far from it as we put in a much improved performance from last week’s opening game.

Herne Bay had a much changed team from our last encounter, they are still very adept in quick passing and movement with one/two touch football.  The first few minutes found us pinned back as they tried to work an opening, today however we were much more resolute as we denied them any space to get near our goal with only a couple of long range efforts to keep out. As the first half continued we started to be more of an attacking force as we made chances of our own and had a period of pressure that alas we couldn’t turn in to an opening goal.

The second half was seeming to be a carbon copy of the first, very tight marking by both teams meant few real goal scoring opportunities were on offer, the commitment of both sides has to be commended, despite this the game was played in a very good spirit.

Now the five minutes that made all the difference. Our opponents took the lead when a fortunate deflection found its way into our goal, it was quickly two, we thought the danger had been averted but a lucky bobble left the Herne Bay centre forward completely on his own and he made no mistake. Almost immediately we had the chance to pull a goal back from the penalty spot, a good low down save thwarted us. The third goal put the game out of sight as a stray cross field pass again was punished. So three down in what seemed a blink of an eye, we kept going and were unlucky not to pull a goal back as Rob’s effort was well saved.

So two games and no points, not the sort of beginning we had in mind.  For the first game it is still puzzling what went on but this second game was a big improvement, passing was crisper and we closed down much quicker and with purpose against a team that were a great deal younger than ourselves, all but Kevin would qualify for an over 65s team. One thing we need to remember is that we are only one point worse off than this time last season and we ended up having our highest finish since we joined the league.

A big thank you to Herne Bay for their hospitality, Tony Old, Gordon and of course Ralph along with yet another impressive refereeing performance from Chris Smith.