Saturday 18th September 2010 (2-3 LOSS vs Islington Villa)

Players ratings as follows:

Rob 7
Graham 7, Shaun 7, Rides 7, Colin 7
Darren 6, Keiran 6, Sumat 8
Hedley 6, Luke 6, James 7

Subs: Craig 7, Dan 7

MOM: Sumat

Champagne Moment: Pete Milden slagging off the ref that he hadn't given us a free kick. The ref played advantage and we scored a goal. Milden was still slagging him off while the game carried on.

Report

Well our first defeat of the season, a result that left us licking our wounds after the game.

It was certainly a game of two halves with Ilsington having the bulk of the possession first half playing down hill and Corries dominating the second half.

Yes we can look back and say the ref was rubbish, their winner was offside and so on and so on but the harsh reality is we cannot continue missing gilt edged chances time after time. At the end of the day goals are what win you matches and, with the exception of Foxhole, we have been guilty of missing chance after chance and sooner or later it was going to bite us in the bum.....

Ilsington are a physical side and certainly know how to play their pitch. They were excellent in the centre of midfield and controlled the game in the first half, opening the scoring with a superb strike from 30 yards that flew into the top corner and doubled their advantage with a long range shot that squirmed under Rob's body. That said although Ilsington controlled the first half we did create a number of chances ourselves, the best being a free header for Hedley in the 6 yard box which he headed over. So 2 0 down at half time.

The second half was a different story. We started to dominate and began to play football. Our pressure told with a goal from Hedley a powerful shot in the 18 yard box. It was all Corries and we were showing the fighting spirit that has served us so well this season. We never gave up and were rewarded with an equaliser from Craig who had come on for Hedley. Craig found himself totally unmarked in the six yard box from a corner and put away the chance.

In my mind there was then only going to be one winner but how wrong could I be....

All Ilsington had to offer in the second half was a long punt for the forwards to chase and one such punt, 3 minutes from time, found their forward one on one with the keeper which he tucked away well. The fact that he was 10 yards offside was an obvious disappointment to the back four, who had defended resolutely throughout. Tony was honest enough to own up that he had not kept up with play and I know he was very upset for missing the offside.

However it would be very short sighted to blame Tony. The fact is the game should have been far out of reach by then so maybe this is a painful lesson the team has to learn. We must, throughout the team, start converting our pressure and possession into goals when we are so much on top.

Finally we said goodbye to Hedley and Shaun (and Fozzy) yesterday and of course they will be a loss to the team. We will also be without a couple of other players in the next couple of weeks and this will stretch our resources. However this is a chance for the guys who have been on the bench or a couple of the reserves to come in and prove to me why they should be in the starting line up.

Hopefully we will be able to put this result behind us and get back to winning ways next week, away (again) at Stoke Fleming   

Babbacombe Corries Res 3 Bovey Tracey 3rds 1

A very difficult start to the afternoon for the managers with 20 players
at Stoodley all wanting a game of football. After the hard task of
picking the starting 11 and the 5 subs the game got under way with 3
players making their league debuts for the Reserves - Joe, James and Ryan.

The first half was pretty even with a Langley goal separating the teams
at half time, thanks to a couple of excellent saves by our 107 year old
keeper Cocker.

The second half was dominated by Corries. Sav came on early for Joe and
troubled the Bovey defence on several occasions without the reward of a
goal. The second goal came after Adam played it wide to Rainey, who put
in a perfect cross for Langers to finish with surprising composure =-O .

Zak finished off the scoring with a great angled strike inside the far
post. Jim came on for Adam an hour into the game and Gary came on for
the ageing Jones for a fine last 20 minutes.

Henson, who had looked dangerous for Bovey all game, scored a very good
consolation goal with the last kick of the game, to spoil our clean sheet.

A good performance all round today to get back to winning ways after
some indifferent matches recently.

Man of the match: Zak Gleeson - for an exceptional 90 minute
performance. Cocker and Langers ran him close.

This match report has been sponsored by Chudley & Co Accountants Ltd,
for all your Accountancy and Taxation needs :-) .

Match Reports