Wrong end of a Thriller

Holyport FC Reserves 7 –  5 Penn & Tylers Green FC Reserves

The Tuesday night trip to Holyport was a game where Penn & Tylers Green Reserves fancied they could come away with a solid performance and hopefully the 3 points. This however did not turn out to be the case and the manner in which the defeat occurred left a very bitter taste in the mouths of the Penn & Tylers Green players. In fact it is very hard to find humour in what was effectively a wasted evening.

A number of changes were made to the starting 11 with Wayne and Liam coming in and Andre and Graham making way. Penn & Tylers Green very much started on the back foot and struggled to really get a foothold in the game, this however didn’t prevent Liam from creating a number of chances for himself out of nothing. Holyport went close a number of times and were only prevented by a string of good saves from Will between the sticks.

It was however Penn & Tylers Green who took the lead when a lovely floated free kick was met by Mikey who headed Penn & Tylers Green into the lead. Penn & Tylers Green now needed to get hold of the ball and weather the inevitable storm. They failed to do this and within 5 minutes the Holyport left winger dug out a cross to the front stick leaving there striker with an open goal, this failure to defend a lead will become a bit of a reoccurring theme.

Penn & Tylers Green were then hit with an unfortunate hamstring injury to Paul Lindsay which saw the introduction of Graham into the fold. Rumours are rife that Linds wanted out of the game so he could try his new tracksuit out. He earlier stated this on twitter: I’ve ironed my tracksuit for 2nite. Not wearing it, just bringing it on a hanger as I don’t want it to get dirty”.

Within 5mins of Grahams introduction Holyport were 2-1 up after a opportunistic strike squirmed its way into the bottom corner. At this point Penn & Tylers Green looked all at sea and were really struggling to get hold of the ball and create any meaningful chances. As such it looked like the half may end at 2-1, that was until a clipped cross from Tim was superbly flicked in by Liam.

Half Time came and Penn & Tylers Green were optimistic that the second half could see a performance worthy of taking the 3 points. The problem was the second half started terribly with Holyport literally taking it from kick off moving it through the midfield and having a shot go just wide without one Penn & Tylers Green playing even attempting a tackle. Moments later the Holyport Number 7 produced a solo goal of the highest quality, Penn & Tylers Green were on the back foot and really needed to start finding an outlet.

That outlet was found with Liam utterly running amok for the next 15mins literally creating chances at will. It was 3-3 within a matter of minutes as Liam latched onto a looping through ball to expectedly dispatch past the on rushing keeper, it was 3-4 almost immediately after as Tim laid the ball off to Liam who completed his hat trick with a great finish from outside the area. An off the ball scuffle prior to the shot resulted in a yellow for Tim and a lovely looking scratch to the forehead very Omar Little.

Penn & Tylers Green were all over the game at this point with Holyport failing to deal with the midfield threat of the blue and whites. Again a through ball caused problems for Holyport’s line but this time it was Luke who took full advantage of the situation clipping the ball exquisitely over the keeper to make it 3-5 and surely now all 3 points were going back to French Meadows. Surely, cue operation HOOF!

Generally when a team is 3-5 up away from home with 10mins to go they will look to get the ball down and keep hold of it, as the old saying goes “if you have the ball, they can’t score.” For some reason however all confidence and common sense had left the P&TG players as they appeared to not be able to get rid of the ball quickly enough and just hoofed it straight back to the opposition.

This tactic was inviting pressure and this resulted in Holyport making it 4-5 when a deflected shot found the bottom corner, it was 5-5 straight after as an aimless punt into the Holyport half found their midfielder whose through ball was buried by the Holyport substitute. Penn & Tylers Green Kick Off, Penn & Tylers Green lose the ball, Penn & Tylers Green Concede 6-5. Penn & Tylers Green Kick off, Penn & Tylers Green Lose the ball, Penn & Tylers Green Concede Corner, Penn & Tylers Green Concede 7-5.

The seventh goal however really showed a complete lack of understanding as Holyport only had one player in the 18 yard box for the corner; he managed to run past 4 players and slam a free header home at the near post. Utterly ridiculous that he was allowed that kind of time and space.

Frankly this result must go down as one of the worst performances in a long whilst for Penn & Tylers Green Reserves. A fantastic performance by Liam completely masked a number of serious issues that currently surround the reserve set up, the inability to hold onto a lead and the complete lack of confidence being the key ones.

Man of the Match is most certainly Liam with Luke and Wayne also turning in decent performances.

Match report by Graham Potts