Ash Trees 1 (only 1!) Woods 3

[Swifty]

How on Earth did we fail to thrash Northwood, Let alone lose? It was England / Poland ’73 all over again.

 

Easily our best display of the season. With no points at stake and the pressure off, Burgo made some more changes to test the water (Tyler starting in goal, Perry at left back instead of Qas, Harry Roberts also given the nod, Adam Willis in midfield instead of Jamie, and Tom Brunton on the wing instead of Cyril) and, with no points at stake and no real pressure on the result, we played like free spirits and absolutely battered Northwood.

 

No exaggeration, I reckon we had close on 30 attempts at goal, roughly the equivalent of our last four of five games combined. Northwood managed either a high single figure or very low double figure number of chances but, yet again, defensive frailties and a combination of tired legs and ageing bodies were our downfall. As for us, a combination of brilliant Jan Tomaszewski-type saves, desperate backs-to-the wall defending, shots hitting the post and bar or going agonisingly wide and, crucially, a missed penalty saw us lose possibly the most shot-laden Ashford game since our Combined Counties days

 

The key moment was our 24th minute penalty. Hughesy hit it well enough but it was parried straight back, whereby Joey scuffed the follow-up. We still battled away and should have been at least three up at half time, then we fell to a sucker punch 20 seconds into the second half. When Northwood got a second midway through the half after we failed to tuck it home and The Woods broke away and carved through us, it looked all over. Still we battled away and, finally, Lynchy got the goal his performances have deserved, scrambling home a blocked Kofi shot with twelve left, but a soft penalty two minutes from time finished us. Nico Muir’s kick was well saved by Tyler, but not one defender attempted to reach the rebound and Muir scored a poacher’s hat-trick.

 

We will play much, much worse than this and win – and, yes, we will win. The squad appear to get on really well, they work as a team and they gave everything. So many players either gave their all and were really unlucky (e.g. Adam, Mark and Hughesy) or were as dependable as ever (Harry Roberts, Lynchy, a very spicy Perry) but, it has to be said - Harry Driver was breathtaking. Again. Apparently, Harry thinks he’s one of our lesser players but he’s enjoying the chance in our team.  In that case, Harry’s a rubbish judge of character. What an absolute find.

 

At this point in time I have no qualms about any of the new signings and the effort that our established lads are putting in, although one or two of our ‘statesmen’ are beginning to get found out despite their nous, which is a real shame. Get the defence sorted, and once we have Weighty, Jocky Mullan and Elliott back to embellish the squad, we should be fine.

 

The other missing ingredient is self-belief. Not confidence – there was plenty of that on show last night and in the first game against Northwood (who, I’d like to say, played both games in really good spirit and with higher skill and less muscle than several other teams we’ve met thus far this season). Keep going, keep the faith, keep believing in your abilities and those of your team-mates.

 

Proud, lads. Light at the end of the tunnel. Keep travelling to the end.

 

[fatboyatmfc]

Excellent post, Ed.

[SlimBoyFat]

Great post Ed, only thing I can add is that I thought the referee was excellent.