Belmont Villa

Basically we lost to a team who had 3 players missing through suspension from the week before and played the whole 2nd half with 10 men. Not a very good sign.
 
We had some good news and some bad news before kick off, Yousef had come good to be fit enough to start but Liam was still sore from training and had to miss out. In the end it was probably the lack of fresh subs that cost us the game.

 They set out quick and sharp in the first half as we took a while to get used to the massive pitch but gradually we got into it controlling most of the possession up until half time. Jonny H in particular was playing a blinder strong in the tackle and set up attacks on the break. Then it was almost as though they decided to take him out, a very badly mistimed tackle sent Jonny flying but justly from the free kick Bartlett was able to float the ball over the defense for Kenji to finish from close range.

At this point we were in no trouble at all other than the one excellent save Danny made at his near post. Then in the 5 minutes before halftime momentum shifted and it was one incident that set it all off. I had promised myself before the game that would not give away a goal this week and as I made a challenge just inside the box, which we all thought was pretty standard, the ref decided that i had taken the player and awarded a penalty, which they converted. Then 2 minutes later Jonny was taken out from behind and had to go off injured, when he came back on it seemed like we switched off allowing them to have possession down the right hand side eventually a cross came in for their left midfielder to nod home easily.
 
2-1 to them at halftime
 
The second half started with a bit of luck for us with their centre forward clearly diving with no one around him and getting a second yellow card which meant he was sent off.  From there we had most of the play lots of corners, free kicks, throw ins to try and score and eventually Fred pushed myself forward to help Kenji and Dave who were both getting tired. Then with about 20 minutes, Yoni switched a free kick to Gavin on the left who crossed beautifully for Bartlett to head home from the penalty spot. In my opinion the best passage of play in the game. From then we continued to push forward looking for a winner leaving ourselves maybe a little bit lost at the back. We let them (and one player in particular) control the ball near the goal and they managed to score twice in the last ten minutes. It proved costly as every time we went forward the final ball was lacking or we made a bad judgement error. Maybe something to work on. 5 yard passes.
 
Its almost make or break time in the league already and the next 3 weeks can shape our season. Away at Whitfords this weekend will show exactly where we are in terms of where we might finish. Then Kingsway at home (always a tough match as they beat Subi 5-nil on Sunday) then Whitfords at home in the cup. We could be out of the cup and probably in the bottom 3 very soon unless we can turn things around.