Lucky Doug leads the way

We thought a friendly against Southgate Pitchers would be good practice for some of the tough league fixtures to come...and so it proved. In the first half we were solid, fairly comfortable at the back and plenty of ball in midfield but lacking a bit of movement and penetration up front. Doug scored from a short corner and Howie managed to lob the keeper with a deflected score and we went into the break 2-0 up. The second half got rather bad tempered and stressy - not sure why, probably six of one and half a dozen of the other. Dorian leapt to the defence of one of our junior players - but may think twice next time as their player was huge when they squared up! Southgate caused us more problems in the second half, attacking well down the right but debutant Aidan may some good saves in goal. Southgate nicked one back but two more from Doug saw the game end 4-1. Lessons learnt - we need to do the basics better and more consistently; take the simple option; and realise that lucky Doug's goals may dry up one day and we need more options. On the positive side, we have learnt that it pointless arguing with Tony when he's umpiring!