Reserves Report

Disappointment is all that can be said about Saturday's result and performance against Halstead Reserves in the Ridgeons Reserve League. Against a side who battled hard but no where near the quality of some of the sides we have played against this year we failed to have 1 shot on target all afternoon!

Several key players where missing due to injuries, including Dack and Green, and Statham and Cook who were promoted to first team duties. With the pitch still rock hard in places the Melford lads just couldn't find a foot hold in the game. Both sides where playing with commitment but the quality of passing that was seen last week at home against AFC had deserted us.

The goal that came and won the match for Halstead looked to be a foul on Hardy but the ref played on and the forward stroked the ball past Mansfield to give Halstead a lead that really never looked like coming.

The second half was much the same, both sides scrapping to win possession but when they had it it was given away to quickly before anything could materialise. Melford where given a lifeline when the referee deemed that a ball into the box had hit a Halstead hand and awarded a penalty.Up stepped captain for the day Taylor who pushed his shot wide of the post to let Halstead off and ultimately claim all 3 points.

On reflection I'm left scratching my head to where this performance came from. In previous weeks we have played superbly and created chance after chance whilst looking solid at the back. Maybe the changes to the squad upset the balance or too many players just had a bad day at the office.

It is an important time to the season where we don't want to undo all the good work we have done at the start of the season! We have a tough game next week away to Tiptree and I'm hoping that after 2 good training sessions this week we are ready to put this match and performance behind us.

Team: Mansfield, Brightwell, Arron, Barr, Grindrod, Taylor, Hardy, Chisholm, Bull, Bennett, Alston Subs Clark, Hayward, Knibbs