Whites Made To Pay For Errors

Once again our strong squad was decimated with injuries and absentees and there is no doubt this did affect us as we lost at West Addlestone.

This was the poorest quality match we have played in this season so far, with neither side able to get to grips with the bobbly pitch and resorting to direct play instead.

Unfortunately for us, Addlestone were far more adept at the long ball game and this combined with some genuinly poor defending meant we were on the wrong side of the result.

Their first goal on the half hour mark was simply awful. It is painful viewing on the video and I don't want to talk about it other than the fact it looked like Matt tried to clear the ball and it either went straight in, or hit one of their players on route - I think it was the latter. They should have been ahead before this though, hitting the bar once, whilst Gerry made a good save at his near post.

Our threat had been fleeting, but we did respond only two minutes later. Ski, who impressed in a destructive role in midfield, hit a hopeful long ball that caused confusion for their defence and the ball fell to Anton who found the net neatly with the keeper in no man's land.

We weren't level for long though. Again we conceeded a rubbish, rubbish goal and again I am not going to talk about it.

Then they got a 3rd, and you guessed it, it was another pitiful goal as we were weak in the challenge and allowed them through. I am not going to dignify that goal with any more comment. To be blunt, it was sh*t.

Just before half time we got ourselves back into the game. Malco's long ball caused miscommunication at the back for the hosts and Hampton sneaked in ahead of their keeper. Again the ball fell kindly for Anton and again he made no mistake with a clinical finish. 5 for the season for Anton in only 4 games, 2 of which were as a sub. Keep that up Ant!

The second half continued in the same vein as the first only this time the goals weren't flooding in. This was down to a mix of poor finishing and defensive luck on the most part however, as both goals lived a charmed life.

Addlestone thought they had a 4th when a clearly offside player prodded home, but somehow, Silvio and Matt between them managed to get the goal dissalowed for a phantom handball. It shouldn't have counted, but quite how we came to that conclusion was impressively stupid.

We flooded forward late on and dominated the last 15 minutes, but this time we could not complete the comeback despite a series of decent chances.

In truth we did not quite deserve the equaliser. This was a real shame as the opposition certainly weren't anything special, but on the day we didn't do enough and committed too many sloppy errors.

We played into their hands by consistently failing to clear our lines effectively enough, allowing them to pelt us with long throw after long throw. Although we did better in dealing with them in the 2nd half, in the 1st we honestly looked like conceeding every time, not challenging headers and letting the ball bounce in our area and in general making life really difficult for ourselves.

That said, considering how many players we were missing, I was happy with the effort shown on the whole. If we can start doing the basics better we can be a good team, but continue to conceed 3 goals every week, like we have the past 5 games, and we will struggle to win games.

Onto next week and our rematch with Wisley!

TRIFFIC - Ski, who was our standout performer today.

CYGAN - Matt and Silvio. Obviously there was poor play at times, but the phantom handball these two managed to create was of the peculiar variety.

Thanks to Chris Smith and Matt for running the line.