Monarchs lose first home match

The team came up against a very strong and well organised South Berkshire side last Saturday. Much of the early play was with South Berks who created a number of chances, playing two-touch hickey abs moving the ball around rapidly, using the whole pitch. However, our defence seemed to be able to cope pretty well with their attack and Tyler was hardly troubled in goal. We slowly got a foot in a the match with Wayne and James in particular able to use quick thinking and then defence into attack with some really good long through balls to hit our forwards. Mark was also instrumental in winning back possession in the midfield and getting us underway in our attacks which were starting to give the South Berks defence a few problems. The difference was that when our attacks broke down, South Berks immediately played out from their 16 to hit us quickly and one such move resulted in their first goal. But at 1-0 at half time we were still well in the match and were confident enough of getting a result.
Into the second half and South Berks were relentless with their whole team play and didn’t really let up. However we did have our opportunities as South Berks played with a very high line; Clint chased down a lost cause of a ball in their third and fired a ball across their D which was missed by both their goalkeeper and last man and was just inches away from Viren at the back post.
With the pressure at the other, South Berks started to create their opportunities and once they had a three goal cushion, this slowly started to put the game out of reach. We kept hoping as a team and everyone played to the final whistle but in the end they had too much for us on the day. Man of the match goes to Max who was fantastic at left back and held his own against their right winger time and time again and was composed with his distribution.

Man of the Match: Max Owens
Match Report: Viren Walia