Post by refsworstenemy on Feb 21, 2007 9:08:21 GMT
Probably one of the smallest crowds I have seen down at Leylands Park for a long time, were entertained by several exciting attacking chances from the Hill last night.
After opening well and creating a few half decent changes, the yellows were fairly unlucky to concede the opening goal. The defence, which had been fairly well organised, seemed in disarray and slightly stranded as they watched the ball trickle through Andre's legs into the net. It looked as though the offside trap had been caught out, and a couple of the defenders were looking over at the linesman instead of maintining the defensive line. Unfortunately, their "offside" player never became involved in the play and the linesman was spot on in keeping his flag down to allow the goal.
For a long period after this it became Walton's game and Burgess Hill were having to fight off a few fairly strong attacks, but the defence remained steadfast and dispatched the majority of the attacks pretty well. The passing in midfield seemed quite lacking though, and the innacuratly hoofed long ball failed to pick out any of our attacking players. When the through balls did come the twitchy linesman raised his flag every time (I think he was correct with his flag on about 50% of his offside decisions, pretty much looking to the Walton defence to make the call for him).
Eventually we bundled the ball into the net, Lloyd Cotton rounding off something of a goal mouth scramble with his head. Probably wasn't our best period of the game but it gave the team and supporters renewed confidence.
Coming back out all square in the second half it was pretty much all Burgess Hill. We had 4 or 5 goal mouth scrambles/strong chances where a combination of bad luck, innacurate passing/shooting, and great last ditch defending from Walton kept the ball out of the net. The passing by now had become a lot better and the attacking moves a lot more organised. As the game ticked into its dying minutes Burgess Hill could see the potential victory in sight and piled the players forwards. This left us quite empty at the back whenever Walton mounted a counter attack. To their credit Walton took advantage of this and piled in a few fast counter attacks, which their strikers failed to convert, on a couple of occassions thanks to some reflex saves from Andre. Fighting off these attacks ultimately prevented us from mounting many more and the long and high balls started to rear their ugly head again as the game finished.
Overall it was quite an exciting game, especially to come back from a goal down. The team showed a lot of spirit and will to win and Croydon did, in my opinion, a great job of organising the team, although we could/should have won comfortably. Andre made some great saves, and was unfortunate to have his performance marred by conceding a weak goal, the defence (don't know all of their names, sorry!) were well organised (they often do when Soutar is present), Watts and Cotton played their usual quiet but vital roles, Grice was very strong in the second half and did a good captain's job, Pulling made some very important tackles and defensive moves in the second half, and Jarvis was his usual eager self (deserved his applause as he was substituted). Number 11 (don't know who he was sorry) was very quick and very useful in attack.
Also, it's worth adding, the linesmen weren't perfect but weren't the worst we have seen, and the ref was pretty good (although seemingly biased at one point). The game was pretty clean, and no cards had to be shown and I don't think there can be many complaints of the officials.
I hope we can play to this standard and higher, every week.
After opening well and creating a few half decent changes, the yellows were fairly unlucky to concede the opening goal. The defence, which had been fairly well organised, seemed in disarray and slightly stranded as they watched the ball trickle through Andre's legs into the net. It looked as though the offside trap had been caught out, and a couple of the defenders were looking over at the linesman instead of maintining the defensive line. Unfortunately, their "offside" player never became involved in the play and the linesman was spot on in keeping his flag down to allow the goal.
For a long period after this it became Walton's game and Burgess Hill were having to fight off a few fairly strong attacks, but the defence remained steadfast and dispatched the majority of the attacks pretty well. The passing in midfield seemed quite lacking though, and the innacuratly hoofed long ball failed to pick out any of our attacking players. When the through balls did come the twitchy linesman raised his flag every time (I think he was correct with his flag on about 50% of his offside decisions, pretty much looking to the Walton defence to make the call for him).
Eventually we bundled the ball into the net, Lloyd Cotton rounding off something of a goal mouth scramble with his head. Probably wasn't our best period of the game but it gave the team and supporters renewed confidence.
Coming back out all square in the second half it was pretty much all Burgess Hill. We had 4 or 5 goal mouth scrambles/strong chances where a combination of bad luck, innacurate passing/shooting, and great last ditch defending from Walton kept the ball out of the net. The passing by now had become a lot better and the attacking moves a lot more organised. As the game ticked into its dying minutes Burgess Hill could see the potential victory in sight and piled the players forwards. This left us quite empty at the back whenever Walton mounted a counter attack. To their credit Walton took advantage of this and piled in a few fast counter attacks, which their strikers failed to convert, on a couple of occassions thanks to some reflex saves from Andre. Fighting off these attacks ultimately prevented us from mounting many more and the long and high balls started to rear their ugly head again as the game finished.
Overall it was quite an exciting game, especially to come back from a goal down. The team showed a lot of spirit and will to win and Croydon did, in my opinion, a great job of organising the team, although we could/should have won comfortably. Andre made some great saves, and was unfortunate to have his performance marred by conceding a weak goal, the defence (don't know all of their names, sorry!) were well organised (they often do when Soutar is present), Watts and Cotton played their usual quiet but vital roles, Grice was very strong in the second half and did a good captain's job, Pulling made some very important tackles and defensive moves in the second half, and Jarvis was his usual eager self (deserved his applause as he was substituted). Number 11 (don't know who he was sorry) was very quick and very useful in attack.
Also, it's worth adding, the linesmen weren't perfect but weren't the worst we have seen, and the ref was pretty good (although seemingly biased at one point). The game was pretty clean, and no cards had to be shown and I don't think there can be many complaints of the officials.
I hope we can play to this standard and higher, every week.
Poorly ;D