We take a bare bones squad of 12 after numerous "late withdraws". Some legitimate reasons other more dubious. Thanks to everyone who turned out given many have been involved in a lot of fixtures lately. This shows tremendous commitment to the club. Also thanks to Steve, Andy and James who volunteered late in the day.

We start in a 4 – 4 – 2 of Stef (G), Chi (LB), Colin (CB), Terry (CB), Scott (RB), Ed (LM), Tom (CM), Andy (CM), Steve (RM), Cowley (F), Forlan (F). The team we have has enough strength to trouble anyone but given fatigue the gaffer decides to be a bit cautious and concentrate on fast breaks and solid defending. The 1st ten minutes goes as demanded. We start much brighter. Very good passing, defense looks comfortable and a great move from midfield finds Forlan free who goes past their defence and crosses nicely to Cowley who takes a Linekeresqe dive before receiving the ball and somehow manages to get to his feet and find the net. A great goal we are 1-0 in the lead. Colin looks commanding at the back and then Chi, Steve and Tom combine well for another great move. Tom and Forlan combine once again and finally Cowley makes it 2 – 0 only for a late offside call to deny the goal. Nineties are at sea. However, their No3 is very quick and may have been offside when he hits us on the break and crosses for an easy finish and then its 1 – 1. After Andy shoots over with a good effort from 25 yards our composure now goes for the next 15 minutes of madness. Scott and Chi swap so Scott can man mark their No3. Although Scott starts well a miscontrol allows the dangerous No3 to finish its 1 – 2. Worse still a "lost in translation moment" between Scott and Stef …. Use English guys! Sees Scott calmly finish inside the box…. Inside our own box! Its now 1 – 3 Terry gives away a foul just outside the box and one of their guys scores an excellent free kick and its now 1 – 4… Disaster! It almost gets worse but they hit the upright. Thankfully we get a break and Andy fires in a thunderous shot and we go back in the game at 2 – 4 at halftime.

There are some glum faces at the break but the gaffer reminds everyone that we are well in the game. We decide to make a better effort with our through balls, staying onside and releasing the ball faster to Forlan and Cowley. Stef swaps with Tel. James comes of for Chi and goes to right mid with Steve going to right back. The half doesn’t get underway for a while as the ref and all the linesman won’t start the game without their money even though it was agreed to give them this after the game (we will make an official complaint about this. This bias against us has to finish!)

The second half is totally dominated by us and we showed immense character after conceding 4 goals in the 1st half. No need to go into details but we miss a catalog of chances. At least 6 good ones! However, our passing, tackling and movement is excellent. Scott gets one back at a corner. We also have a penalty disallowed. Unfortunately they also score near the end and it finishes 3 – 5.

We did brilliantly to score 3 goals. Some of our work was outstanding in terms of movement, tackling and passing. Everyone had a generally good game with exceptional performances from Colin, Tom, Cowley and Forlan. Andy, Steve and Ed also ran their socks off.

However, it wasn’t our day. With fatigue, no regular keeper, not taking our chances, giving them a few free goals and the usual bias refereering we were always going to find it tough. However, we live to fight another day. Thanks again to everyone who came down for an entertaining game.

Only a few at Yorkshire after so:
MOTM : Colin.. "yes we let in 5 but they weren’t my fault"
Jaeger Bomb MOTD : Scott… "scoring 2 goals in any game is a great effort"

STRENGTH & HONOUR
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