Red Lion Horninglow vs Gresley Rovers
Red Lion 4 - 1 Gresley Rovers
Scorer: Chris Smith
Team: Stu Haywood, Carl Wymark, Alex Peplow, Joe Tomlin, Kyle Jones, Matt Grice, Todd Foster(c), Sam Ingley, Chris Smith, Rich Hanslow, Paul Morton
Subs: Jack Moylan, Dean Acton, Ian Parker
We were away to The Red Lion in the league cup, and had the luxury of a good squad, including three subs. We had played them earlier in the season so we knew what to expect, and being a cup game, we didn't want to give away
anything early on.
However from the start, we were under pressure and they came close to opening the score on more than one occasion. They didn't have to wait too long though, as on 7 minutes, Stu Haywood miss kicked from a goal kick and their
striker reacted first and took his goal well with a good finish. It's not the kind of start you want in any game, but against a good side in the cup, we had the all too familiar task of coming from behind.
We settled a little and started to pass the ball around with a bit more confidence, and when we did this, it gave the opposition a few more problems. Although we were now matching them with possession, as we know they are well organised with no real weaknesses, so although we had a good spell of about 20 minutes, we never really gave their keeper too many problems.
Although we were matching Red Lion in most positions, they still looked dangerous on the break, and added another from a corner that we failed to deal with. With about 23 minutes gone we lost Carl Wymark through an ankle injury, so we replaced him with Jack Moylan, who as we've seen is a very good right back. We were still playing some good passing football, but lacked that little bit of quality we needed at times, and failed to match their mid-field. We conceded another 2 goals in a short period, so although we never let our heads drop, realistically we had a mountain to climb. Just before half time Chris Smith broke clear and coolly beat their keeper to make it 4-1, which gave us a little bit of hope.
Second half I asked that we have more belief in ourselves, and build from the back and use our wingers, and we started to do this a little and looked better for it. We replaced Matt Grice for Ian Parker and Todd Foster for Dean
Acton early on, and although we competed quite well we never really gave them too many problems. So as the final whistle blew, we were defeated yet again and out of the cup.
,br>
I'd like to say that today we can learn from the game, however we keep making individual errors, and we're getting punished for them. It seems that we start games not fully focussed on our task, and as most of this season we're behind early on and chasing the game. Last year we could do this and pull it back, however we're in a much better league against much better teams, and as shown again today we didn't create enough to do this. We need to listen more to basic instructions, from me and fellow team mates if we are going to progress. It's not that we don't try, because today as always we've gave it our all, but credit to The Red Lion they were worthy winners in a good sporting game and showed that with their organisation and composure that's what we're looking to achieve. Heads up and lets look forwards to our next game with local rivals Newhall Utd away and keep believing that if we keep focussed we can turn things around because I honestly believe that we can and WILL.
