Unlucky away loss for the Monarchs

Last Saturday saw the Monarchs travel to Slough for a late afternoon match. Having lost for the last two seasons against the Slough Despondents (4th team), there was a general feeling of unease regarding how we'd fare against the Swifts (3rd team), but we were ready for the challenge - until we saw how young they all were....groan.

We had a good team talk (Viren wasn't there), with the key message being DO NOT ARGUE with the umpires, and were quickly underway.

The first 5-10 minutes of the game was relatively calm and to me felt quite evenly balanced. There were a few interesting moments at both ends of the pitch, but over time the Swifts began to retain more and more possession and assert themselves in the midfield and towards our D. Despite this, they were lucky to get an early goal shortly after - which I think came from a short corner?.
The pressure continued for the remainder for the first half and despite some fantastic defending across the board, and a truly heroic full length dive by Connor, we ended the half with a 3 goal deficit. On a positive note though, we were beginning to string some good passes together in the midfield and onwards, but lacked a final, decisive push into their D. It was a shame also that Mike injured himself and had to sit out for much of the half, but Rod came on and did great work supporting the defence.
For me, the best takeaway from the first half was that we ALL played a positive game, did not question a single umpiring decision and moved quickly to reset whether the decision went our way or not. We came off feeling positive, and that despite the deficit, it was all to play for in the second half....

The second half started much as the first had ended with Slough pressuring the midfield and camping in our half. However, we were beginning to have some success by making quicker, more deliberate passes some of which even went to our own players. We managed a few forays towards the Slough D through some great interplay between Clint, George, JC and Ash, and could feel that a goal was coming our way. We were soon to be rewarded when Clint ran onto a ball at the top of the D and quickly cracked a fearsome shot along the ground and just inside the left post. 3-1. This goal inspired all of us and we upped the tempo and started to threaten their D more and more. This resulted in a number of short corners, which despite solid strikes at goal, were not converted. Slough were continuing to press us, and unfortunately managed to score a scrappy goal following a few quick attacks. We didn't give up though, and soon Ash picked up a ball in the D, (I think from me or George maybe?) and after running toward the bottom right of the D let off an absolute missile from the tightest of angles and beat the keeper on his near post. 4-2. Our heads were up and we felt that we could draw or even win, but time was running away and we needed another goal quickly. After a few quick passes and nice build up play we got the ball into the Slough D again and George found himself in the right position to knock the ball into an empty net. A frantic 5 minutes followed with a late short corner opportunity, but we couldn't get the elusive equaliser, and the game ended 4-3.

I thought we did brilliantly. We clearly won the second half. We didn't argue once (and anyone who has played at Slough knows how hard that is), and I think as a result most if not all of us really enjoyed the game! Well done Everyone.

My Men of the Match are Clint and Ash. Clint for a terrific strike and tireless running despite being obviously unwell, and Ash for one of the best goals I've ever seen in the second half of an away game against Slough Swifts on a dry Saturday in October. :)

Match report: Tim Brennan
Man of the Match: Clint Miles & Ash Clark