We have been believing that our poor start in the League was all down to two tough away games, and a home game against the runaway league leaders. But here was a side in the bottom half of the Division, playing at our so-called stronghold, and frankly over 90 minutes they gave us a football lesson. In a nutshell we lacked real quality and they didn't with their midfield getting past ours almost at will and their strikers doing us for pace on almost every attack.
We now know that we have a real fight on our hands to stay in this Division, with the November fixtures giving us no respite with three hard away games. Admittedly we had players missing, it being half term, but l'm not convinced that our first pick side would have got a better result.
We started well and Ryan Ashley put us one up when he outpaced the Faygate defence to round the keeper and slide the ball home. But the danger signs were there and Faygate soon equalised. Gary Weedon was our one attacking player who was a real threat, the opposition full back had no idea how to stop him, and failed to do so fairly when he hacked Gary down in the area for Ryan to score his 2nd from the spot.
So 2-1 up at half time but it didn't feel like it and there was a good deal of apprehension as well as injuries to several players. And this feeling of unease was well justified as increasingly Faygate took control of the game. Whilst our defence battled manfully to keep Faygate at bay, there was no outlet and the ball just kept coming straight back. It was thus no surprise when Faygate equalised although the manner of it was somewhat unjust, with Weedon judged to have fouled their striker, who made the most of a coming together, in our penalty area
So, as it turned out, a point gained. There is no doubt that the Division is much stronger this year, with several teams gaining strength by being feeder clubs to top County sides. In that ball park, we are very much the minnows and that is the crux of the problem that our 1st team faces.