29th Sept 2007 - A tale of two halves...... and two keepers

It started off as a very tough challenge...... but we managed to find our new ground in the end.

On a wet day on the last weekend in September we met up at our new stadium in Swaythling.  It's very similar to the new Wembley, in the fact that they both have grass and goalposts.  I guess that's where the similarity ends.  When we turned up we realised that they were also wearing red and we had not brought our black away kit and so in true Premiership style we had to wear our shirts inside out.  There was talk that as we were the home team they would have to go 'skins', but it fell on deaf ears.  The official photographer was there and he stood behind the goal that we were defending.  This was to turn out as the best decision of the whole game.

Josh turned up with his own goalkeeping gloves.  Could this be the end of searching for a consistent goalkeeper and the way forward for the rest of the season ?  John, Pete, Steve and Lewis returned to the match day squad. Super tall defender James was missing due to him out in Dublin.

The first half kicked off and both teams wanted to use the advantage of the wet pitch, so there was shooting from all sorts of angles.  This also meant that the ball was going everywhere and very little skilful play was on display.  Well that was our excuse anyway.  Hedge End had one of the best chances early on when Andy M ran down the right wing, passed two players, and then crossed the ball low into the box, but Dave just managed to hoof it over the bar.  Sholing then had quite a few chances but kept shooting from range which suited Hedge End. 

Eventually Sholing scored ( after 15 minutes ), a low drive from the left, which to be fair was a goal that you couldn't do anything about.  There were questions asked about their player being offside but he was deemed inactive and the goal stood.  Their second goal I can't remember as I was dreaming at the time about scoring and getting a great celebration photo, but I am sure that it wasn't amazing anyway.  Actually official sources ( Pete )  have just confirmed that the ball skimmed across the grass and Josh couldn't hold on to it as it trickled into the net.

Sholings third goal came from a free kick when Bernard was adjudged to have brought down their striker just outside the box.  The freekick was hit hard and low and might have taken a deflection passed Josh.  Sholing then got their forth goal of the game when a mix up in our defence allowed their striker to run onto the ball and tap it in.  This prompted Josh to hang up his gloves and call it a day.  On his way to the bench he 'mentioned' ( this is a re-wording and not a quote )  to the photographer that he wished the photo of him letting in the last goal would not be shown in public.  Andy C took over in goal and made an impact straight away, making some good saves and picking up the loose balls.  The first half ended 4-0.

In the second half Pete came on and changed the dynamics of the team.  Fair enough the other changes like Andy going in goal, Josh in defence, Sunny in midfield and Matt up front might have also added to the team dynamics but Pete would like to think that he was the most important change.

Hedge End pushed for the consolation prize as deep down they knew that there was no return from the four goal advantage that Sholing had.  Then Josh got an injury which meant that he had to come off. 

After a great run down the left wing, Sunny crossed the ball perfectly to Dave, who ' salmon like ' headed it in to the goal.  To be fair the cross was so perfect that the team agreed that even Callum could have scored from it.  It was nothing less than Hedge End deserved ( how many times will I say this in our match reports ).  Dave had been perfecting a great celebration photo for the photographer but by then he had gone home, which really summed up our day.

Hedge End then had a spell where they passed the ball about and Sunny, Lewis and Andy M were working very hard in midfield and when Sholing did attack Andy C was on hand to collect.

Towards the end, they had a number of chances to put the game beyond the grasp, but with a mixture of good defending and pure jammyness Hedge End kept the score down to 4-1 in the end.  Ben again had a blinder and put some great tackles in,  and we will not mention the one where he was a bus ride late and completely took the player out.  If we had an award for most improved player of the season then Ben's name would already be engraved on it.  Unfortunately we don't really have any awards unless Phil returns and so he's stuffed !

Verdict:  Again Hedge End played well but at times lacked a lot of concentration.  Pete's trick of letting the attackers run passed him and then stopping them at the last minute might not work against better teams.  Also Hedge End lacked the killer pass and touch which they seemed to have in the first few games.  Hopefully this will return by the time we play St James.  In a rare interview with an unnamed St James' player ( Matt Louth would kill me if I mentioned his name ) he announced that they lost to Testwood 4-2 on Saturday and turned up with only 10 men.  I hope that this news will spur on our team....