Monarchs grind out 0-0 draw with Slough

So the start to the 2021/2022 season started on the 25th September with a match against one our biggest rivals – Slough!
We have only played this team a couple of times in the past and knew that they would be relatively young and therefore quicker around the pitch. Monarchs won the toss and were always going to be at a disadvantage as we only had 10 players! Slough didn’t realise this for the majority of the game thankfully! We started well with some probing runs by Jack, Viren and Clint up the middle but also assisted by JC and Chris out wide on the left and right respectively.

Slough returned the favour but our back of Cameron (a last minute addition), James, Randy and Wayne were able to suppress the advancing youth of Sloughs attack. We didn't get the rub of the green with certain decisions but rode these well and didn't let them interfere with our game. Even outnumbered we were able to give Slough a few scary moments when Viren received a quick ball from Wayne and passed it quickly through to Clint who managed to get around the Slough defenders to get a shot off which was just saved by their keeper. Chris had another opportunity later on in the first half which was parried away by their keeper. Jack was a constant thorn in their side, as was Wayne who made some good runs and some even better tackles. Cameron saved a couple of balls from the lines after some very dubious short corner decisions. James and Randy worked well to clear the ball quickly from defence too,

Things got a little heated in the second half when within five minutes both JC (who received his first yellow card in 60 years) and Clint were sent off for fair tackles against the opposition. This did then leave 8 players on the pitch and Slough then had a raft of fortuitous short corners which they failed to convert thanks to the skills of Tyler and the back 4. The Monarchs were eventually back to 10 players and were still putting in a superb effort of defending and attacking which led to our only short corner. JC pushed in and Wayne took the strike but unfortunately it went slightly wide. We were on the attack again shortly afterwards when the final whistle blew, much to the chagrin of Slough.

The Monarchs had put in superb team performance and were buoyed by the result of having drawn a match against a Slough where the odds were stacked against us!

Match Report - Clint Miles
Man of the Match (MOM) – The whole team