Today we welcomed Hawkenbury Reserves to Swanmead, as we returned to league action after a 3 week break. Our opponents arrived in a rich vein of form which has seen them rise to 4th in the table. We knew we were in for a tough game today, so the withdrawal of Mike Bowen and Leon Piscina due to work commitments shortly before kick off and the call up to the 1st team for Dan Rosier, was a huge blow to our preparations. Thankfully we were able to welcome back club captain Peter Hart into the squad, for his first game since December 2006 and Dan Gurney who has missed the last couple of games.
 
We lined up with J Faulkner in goal. Bridges, Herbert, Chambers and Hunt made up the defence. A reshuffled midfield saw Hart on the right, Poore and M Faulkner in the middle with Tuema on the left. Warner and Thomas were chosen up front. Gurney and manager Churcher were this weeks subs.
 
We started very slowly today and found ourselves 1 down in the opening minutes. Unfortunately a mistake in the midfield led to us giving away possession and being punished immediately. Sadly this was to be our downfall throughout the entire first half.
 
Although we never really played the type of free flowing football that we know that we are capable of, we did still create ourselves a number of good opportunities. Bomber equalised midway through the first half and shortly afterwards hit the outside of the post following a strong run into the area.
 
Unfortunately the scores did not remain level for long as we fell behind again, following yet another defensive mix up. However Glen made sure that we went in level at the break, with a well struck shot from the edge of the area.
 
Sadly the first 45 minutes saw us put in our worst performance of the season, however the team talk at half time was quite positive as we knew that we couldn't really play any worse. We also took encouragement from the fact that we were still level.
 
We knew that we had to start the second half quickly if we were to get anything out of the game, however the total opposite happened as we again found ourselves behind following yet another misplaced pass. Thankfully this finally woke us up and we began to start to dominate possession and cause Hawkenbury a few more problems. Glen had a couple of opportunities to score but failed to hit the target, but at least we were beginning to take the game to the visitors.
 
We finally managed to get the breakthrough that we deserved when Bomber scored his second of the game and as time was running out and with most people having settled for a draw, Faulks sent a long range free kick high into the area which seemed to deceive both keeper and defenders and ended up in the back of the net.
 
A 4-3 victory when we were no where near our best, but at least we can say that we never gave up and in the end our perseverance paid off. I am sure that Hawkenbury will feel slightly hard done by today's result, as they are a decent side who will take plenty of points off other teams this year.
 
It was good to see Pete back playing again after his year out through injury and i am sure that he will feel pleased to get 50 minutes under his belt. Hopefully he will be with us for a few more weeks as he continues his recovery to full fitness before the inevitable happens and he returns to the 1st team.
 
Next week we are away to Horsmonden Sports in what i am sure will be another tough game.