Scorers: Kane Joseph

Two defeats on the trot!! What are we going do? how do we change things? what's going wrong?
Nothing is going to be done except to roll up our sleeves and make sure we put in even more effort. We need to finish the league as strongly as we started it. The best way for us as a team to do this is carry on playing the way we have played for ALL the games so far. The games we lost we have deserved at least a share of the spoils, remember that...

For the second week running our first half performance wasn't up to what we as a team are capable of. We all chased the ball instead of sticking to our positions, we must remember we are at our best when passing the ball to each other over short distances and then moving ready to receive the ball again. We need ALL of us to be much, much more vocal, just like training!!!!! "Ryans ball, Stanleys ball, Kanes ball" etc, let your team mate know you are prepared to take control of the situation. A lack of communication cost us against Croydon.

Back to the game....

As I said earlier we were slow to start against Croydon. They are quite a big, powerful side and I'm sure this had a bearing on our first half performance. We didn't challenge, tackle or get close enough to their midfielder who had a big influence on the outcome of the game. Invicta scored first through Kane J and to be fair it was the only time in the first half that we had put any pressure on Croydon. Croydon equalised after a mix up between our defenders and goalkeeper.. Irrespective of who kicked the ball out of Stanley's hand we should have dealt with the situation with one call of "xxxxx's ball" and then the ball should have found itself soaring away from goal. Stanley pulled of some great saves to keep us level at 1-1 and despite my criticism of ball chasing I cannot fault the boys effort and commitment under intense pressure. Croydon scored another to make the half time score 2-1. I was happy with this as they had dominate the majority of the game.

The second half started the same as last week, we came out a better side and immediately put Croydon under immediate pressure. Chances came and went, balls skidding past the outside of posts, legs not quite long enough to turn crosses in. Croydon had a couple of chances in the second half but we really should of equalised but for the second game running it wasn't to be...
We had lost our first league game against our main rivals. The sheer delight on the Croydon boys, and their supporters, faces made me realise how much beating us meant to them!! Lets not let any other team enjoy that feeling!....

Man of the Match as voted for by the parents:- Sam Greehy....