A Narrow Defeat

Our five game unbeaten run came to an end at a sunny but cold Fairford Leys against a very impressive Haddenham Youth Red side.

We lined up in our usual formation and from the start it was clear we were playing a well organised side full of talented players who also knew how to operate effectively as a team.

Our midfield four of Elliott Behan, Kaelin Shaw, James Gibson and Andrew Carr worked tirelessly trying to create openings for themselves and our lone front man Joshua Cotton but the Haddenham defence remained resolute as did our defensive trio of Igor Chrzanowski, Charlie Davis and Aqib Zahir in light of some very positive forward play from our visitors.

We did however take the lead when some intricate passing play caught the Haddenham defence out and allowed Kaelin Shaw to race through and score his well deserved first goal of the season.

Haddenham were not too down hearted though and stayed true to their passing game and just before half time they won a free-kick which was expertly despatched into the top right hand corner of the goal.

At half time we made a few changes with Nathan Bosworth replacing Aqib in defence and Harry Grantham replacing Joshua Cotton. In order to try and nullify the threat from the Haddenham midfield the boys' instructions were to play with 5 in midfield and no-one up front when necessary and rely on the pace of our midfielders on the break to create opportunities. Harry followed these instructions to great effect and certainly lodged a claim for more playing time following his recent injury.

The second half was a tight affair and whilst we did manage to look threatening with balls over the top of the Haddenham defence their keeper was also very alert in leaving his line and almost playing as a sweeper to ensure any threats we posed were competently dealt with.

Haddenham took the lead their performance deserved when we failed to pick up all of our men at a corner and the Haddenham player scored with a lovely cushioned header across the face of the goal.

Towards the end of the game Haddenham were quite rightly awarded a penalty following a handball in our box however Oliver Foster in goal did a great job of not only saving the ball but keeping hold of it to ensure no potential rebound could be taken advantage of.

We introduced Alex Marrannino, Ben Philbey, Nelson Nkanzei and Toby Clark into the game as the second half progressed to give all four players vital experience against good opposition which will serve them in good stead as the season run-in gets underway.

The rest of the game saw us do our best to secure a drew however Haddenham remained solid, organised and confident and as a result secured the three points their performance deserved.

There's no doubt about it Haddenham were the best team we've faced this season so far, their organisation, talent and willingness to stick to their guns and not be afraid of making mistakes was a credit to them and their coaching team. The positives from our point of view were that we didn't play at all badly and were very much in the game for the entire 60 minutes - once again proving that were are deserving of our place in the Green Division.

In the bigger picture this was only our third defeat in fourteen games of what has been a fantastic season so far. This squad has great character and will be extremely keen to bounce back in the local derby against Bedgrove Dynamos on February 8th. The most frustrating thing is that we have a free Sunday next week due to there being an odd number of teams in our league which means we'll have to wait a little longer than usual to get back to securing positive results.