This week saw the mighty whites take on one of last seasons form sides in a do or die grudge match after the mercedes boys had beaten the whites 2-0 in a pre-season ‘friendly’ that really was anything but. Once again a number of players dropped down from the A’s to strengthen our lineup and once again we looked to have a strong side on paper especially with James returning from his work enforced lay-off. In the warm up the boys looked fired up and ready to atone for last weeks blip by taking it to a side that frankly were rather cocky and really needed a shelacking from the whites.

The game kicked off at a good pace and the whites once again got the ball on the deck and moved it quickly, the first 10minutes once again saw the opposition running willy-nilly trying to shut down our smooth passing and supportive running off the ball. In short order however the whites conceded a free kick just outside the box and the direct effort from the mercedes player was curled brilliantly over the wall and into the top left hand corner of vish’s goal, 1-0 Mercedes. Unlike last week the team responded strongly to going down 1-0 by running at the mercedes team and tackling strongly around the box and in midfield, we just couldn’t find that killer pass, a couple of efforts went at the keeper and a couple were scuffed wide but at half time 1-0 down we felt we were still in the game.

The second half began disasterously for the B’s, within 90 seconds of the restart we’d gone 2-0 down when a mercedes player caught the back-line off guard and ran at goals only to square the ball to an apparently offside (but i’ve since been told otherwise) Mercedes player to tap in. The third goal for mercedes wasn’t long in coming either, another free kick outside the box saw the ball fizzed in and when Vish failed to hold onto it after thinking he was miles off his line and so electing to try and catch the ball rather than tip it over, the Mercedes Hyenas were there to devour the scraps on offer and put their team 3-0 up. At this point the whites were commiting more numbers forward and trying to get something back to put ourselves back in the game but the Mercedes back line was holding firm and the switches of play that we’d worked on in training throughout the week were just far to slow to catch them out. Mercedes brought on a couple of subs to give their old hands a break and they combined to open up the backline for the fourth and final goal of the game, a clinical finish from a one-on-one situation.

Overall another performance that promised so much from the whites and failed to deliver, the lack of cohesion from not training together is really showing in our games and all the boys have agreed to train strongly together during the week to see what we can pull out in the cup round coming up. Stay tuned for another match report following that game.

Vish