Oh dear

Sparkshop were action again last Monday but after the glory of the cup we came back to earth with a defeat which just about sees us safe from the threat of promotion. With a full squad bar Dougie to choose from we lined up strongly with two pint Pete in a rich vein of scoring form and a miserly back line which was conceding few goals. The pattern in recent matches has been to soak up pressure for the first half and then unleash our superior fitness as the opposition run out of ideas on how to break us down.

It was a welcome surprise to find ourselves dominating the early exchanges with several shots on goal, corners and long throws courtesy of Kevin. We put together some good passing moves but were stunned when a free kick from a fair way out was struck goalwards and appeared to go through matter when there seemed to be no way of finding a way through. Richard was as stunned as anyone when the ball flew over his hands and into the net. It is unusual for a direct free kick to cause problems, there seldom seems to be any advantage in getting one but this one did for us.

I had a great chance to level matters but caught the ball too well on the turn and succeeded in missing the post by a centimetre. There was a comedy moment as the ball flew high in the air from a misplaced defensive clearance and I tried to head it goalward only to see the ball brush my forehead and strike my foot as it stumbled out of play.

Turning round a goal down we continued to play attractive football with lots of balls being won from the keeper as we tried to create more clear cut chances. New Matt had a great effort tipped over before we fell further behind to a shot given venom as the striker miscontrolled and had to stretch to reach the ball. In doing so the angle of the shot changed and he thumped it high into the net to leave us 2 down. Kev continued to shout at everything and everyone and a bit of spice came into the game as tackles began to fly. The stand in ref was out of his depth and constantly penalised our midfield and defence for standing their ground. The result was they started to leave a foot in and Matt C in particular was brought down without ceremony.

A glimmer of hope came when Kev's through ball split the defence and he howled at new Matt to get on the end of it. Having let it pass him by, the chance appeared to have gone, but Matt raced to the byline and struck a fierce effort from an acute angle. Stunningly it flew into the goal and left us with some respectability but little else as the final whistle went seconds later.

A disappointing result but one with plenty of positives to take home.


Richard Dom Matt C Mike Pete Kev New Matt (1) and Iain

2 - 1 defeat.

League One

p w d l f a gd pts 1 Lady Boys 8 7 1 0 21 5 16 22 2 V.R.A. 8 6 0 2 13 6 7 18 3 Old Guns 7 4 2 1 7 5 2 14 4 U-Drive 8 4 0 4 17 18 -1 12 5 Sparkshop 7 3 1 3 8 10 -2 10 6 Dark Knights 7 2 2 3 9 12 -3 8 7 Redefine 7 2 2 3 8 12 -4 8 8 Ferndown Foresters 7 1 0 6 7 22 -15 3 9 RB's Chan4NewsTeam 7 0 0 7 0 0 0 0