With the early Sat Spartans game we lost a few players to the distractions of wanchai – however we still had a squad of 14 for the match.
Bit top heavy with utility players caused a few headaches for selection however playing on the lower Kings Park pitch was a good start given Lama spanked us 7:2 on the upper pitch last season.
In the end we started with a back line of Steff, PaulH, TonyC, DaveS with Patrick’s mate Daz between the sticks. On the wings Hemant and Edd and 3 in midfield; Sanj, newbie Jim and RichardC and Patrick the lone striker.
The first half was a pretty close encounter, Lama started well and had a few corners and we looked a little nervous. After 10mins we settled down and we putting good pressure on Lama. Lama passed the ball around quickly but were lacking on the final third which allowed us to counter. Finding space down the wings Steff and Hemant we putting balls down the left side and Hemant was linking up well with Patrick same on the right side with Dave and Edd which resulted in quite a few corners for us.
Switching the wings at half time with Jeff and Scott on, shortly after Chi came on with Scott moving to right back. Our main problem area seemed to be midfield with a big gap opening up so we were losing balls there and opening ourselves up to pressure. We continued to attach on the counter as per the first half but never really tested their keeper.
Lama had a shot deflected off the bar and as the ball pinged around the box one of their strikers put it in the back of the net and a few minutes later they missed an open goal.
Switch to 4:4:2 for the last 10 and Jeff’s mate Assad on for Patrick saw 3 through balls typically called offside that were one-on-one goal scoring opportunities for Assad twice and RichardC.
Disappointing result as we at least deserved a draw. With a slightly more balanced squad I’m sure we can beat these guys in the replay.
We have a win and a draw in addition to our league position of 3rd – so all to play for.
