Last week I told you that I gave the Referee the highest mark i have ever given a ref after his game against Sholing. On Tuesday the ref didn't have such a good game and it might be because he was being assessed - and it always makes a difference. Shouldn't but it does! Human nature I expect. But because he allowed players to get away with stuff early on they took advantage and made him look a bit silly. Guy kicks the ball half the length of the pitch and gets away with it and then when mr Ref gets fed up after the 3rd or 4th one he books a guy for kicking it 2 yards... his own fault! Anyway the impressive part of Tuesday was the spirited performance and downright dogged defending the team, and the back four in particular, put in to preserve the points after Dunking had given us a 2 goal lead. We were severely under the cosh for 15 or 20 minutes as Tivvy threw not only the sink but the cooker at us. Smash and Jake Lee blocked everything and gave their all to the cause. 2 games - 4 points! Sykesy said he would have settled for that start - and so would I....
Meanwhile Supermarine had lost both of their games but I never have any complacency when we face a side managed by our old mate Dave Webb. Too many times he damaged us at Highworth and apart from being a damn fine chap his side always give everything....
However - 42 minutes gone and the score is Marine 0 Wood 3! Bam Bam has given us the lead, Dunking has headed home and netted a pen (more about that in a bit!!). The comment was made by the barmy army that we got caught a couple of times by long balls and they had hit the woodwork twice but Timmy had smacked the bar and we had created enough chances to win 3 games let alone 1 and we were three up!! I was HaPpY....
But.. we lost Dunking after he popped a groin taking the penalty - which is a strange way to pick up an injury and i confess that at the time I thought it was a result of the incident that led to the penalty...
Right. If you read the Marine report on their website - "On 40 minutes, referee Matt Rushton then stunned the home fans by bizarrely pointing to the penalty spot after Marine keeper Sam Worrall had grabbed the ball from the ensuing Duncan Culley inside the area," .... Well he must be one of the only people who saw it like that... Certainly not their fans from behind the goal or the other very knowledgeable football people who were spoken too ( and some of their players and Management staff I would add! )
The keeper came and caught the ball cleanly above his head but then lifted his boot and appeared to kick out at Dunking. Ref immediately blows, awards penalty, and only books the keeper. Straight Red surely - and I cannot think of a circumstance that allows him to stay on.. Now this is no excuse for what followed but Mariners down to 10 men, no keeper and 3-0 down .Hmmmmmm...
What followed in the second half reminds me of the Wood comeback to win the floodlit cup final a few years ago when we came back from a 3 goal first leg loss to win. And I know now how those Readings fans felt. All of the goals we conceded we poor to say the least and I have done my best to describe them in the match report already uploaded. I think the calamitous own goal just about summed up our second half performance! We were all left shaking our heads - especially after the last and also the way the players heads went down ! Evo and Sykesy will have had their say and the players will respond. Of that i have no doubt.
Perhaps we changed our system when Dunking went off but whatever happened we stopped playing the way we were..
All credit to Supermarine for coming back the way they did but they really shouldn't have had a sniff!
The players have a chance to redeem themselves on Tuesday when we are at home to Stratford Town before we take the road to Bridgwater next Saturday.... Paul B will be reporting on that one as I am out for the day and evening...

THe Ressies played at home to Carterton yesterday and were unlucky to lose by the odd goal in 3. Will Hawes scored for us after we went 0-2 down... This is a new side and they are already playing some trademark football and the results will come. Thery have a reall toughie next week when they take on Purton at home ... 3.00 pm...

See you Tuesday.