Hertford V 1 - 2 Rickmansworth IV

Disappointing outcome to a game we should have got more from. A good squad on paper, with Arjun Patel joining us, as will as Luke Godwin and Tom Smith down from the 4s, but not ideally balanced, we're still getting to know each other, and 15 is a tricky number to manage for substitutions. That's enough excuses, the real problem was that we didn't play anything like well enough in the first half against robust and mostly experienced opponents. We had plenty of space, but good opportunities broke down due to poor passes, poor support running, no use of width and repeatedly running into tackles. Defence was generally steady (in spite of losing Dave Roche early to a cut above the eye) but we conceded to spectacular tight angle strike after failing to clear our lines, and found ourselves chasing the game.

Second half brought a big improvement as we opened up the pitch and worked round them. Mark repeatedly found good space wide right, as did Luke Godwin, but we were making little impression on a packed defence until the last quarter, as we finally began to get the ball down into the corners and get round the back of them, Arjun standing out particularly in the last 15 minutes. At last we created real goalscoring opportunities, but we came away from two goal mouth scrambles empty handed as final shots squeezed agonisingly wide of the posts. Predictably, with time running out and players committed forward, we were regularly exposed on the break, and with 5 to go we conceded another short and went two down. So Dave Harding's well deserved 69th minute short corner conversion was only a consolation goal.

Man of the match goes to Mark, constantly available to receive the ball and main driver of most of our attacking play.

Let's get it right from the start next week!