First home game of the season yesterday and good to see the pitch in excellent condition, and for good parts of the game we used it well moving the ball around with increasing confidence.

That said we went 1 down after a long ball in behind us on the left and recovered well to go 2-1 up through 2 great strikes from Andy sporting his golden boots that dazzled on occasion. Soon after he hit the post in what was a pivotal moment, a difficult chance well struck deflected possibly by a hand of a defender on to the post – goes in we are 3-1 up and the oppo already moaning at each other would have gone in to melt down but with many new players and everyone still trying to remember each other’s names we were undone by a young vets side containing a very good player who markedly made a difference, running at pace from deep with the ball and amazing energy from start to finish. Added to that a worldy free kick and another couple of avoidable ones.

Losing 5-2 was disappointing as again we really could have won the game and even in a 2nd half where we tired a lot we still created chances and KP could have scored a glorious volley to have given us hope. So similar to last week defending needs to improve; we are conceding 3.6 goals a game on average this season and scoring 1 on average.

We are unlikely to win by only scoring 1 a game but definitely won’t win conceding almost 4! So what do we do about it? We continue to work on the routine we practised yesterday and all 11 players on the pitch need to realise defending is everyone’s responsibility, more closing upfront means less long balls behind us, winning more ball in midfield creates opportunity for quick attacks and stronger defending at the back keeps the score down – all I am saying here is we have to see the time we have without the ball as a team exercise in winning it back!

In fairness they deserved the win, although the score line flattered them but positive signs and most encouragingly we stuck together and didn’t get on each other’s back which is good to see.

Waiting for final few availabilities for October then will work out a squad for each week and notify you all soon.

Thanks and welcome to the new boys this week, good performances from Dan and Kevin with the newbies from last week continuing to show they are worthy additions.