A tremendous second half performance and an exciting draw at the death.
We started poorly and they were on the front foot from the first whistle. They pushed and pressed us back and had much more of the ball. We struggled to get a foothold in the game or play any meaningful football and they had some decent chances and quite frankly it just seemed a matter of time. Well, ten minutes to be precise. Casper tried very hard to get to the ball but their midfielder held him off and held him off and the ref gave a free kick just to the left of our box. It was floated over to the far post, nodded goalwards, poorly cleared straight to one of their midfielders. Hit hit it low and hard and through a lot of legs and it nestled in the far corner for one nil. We could see it coming but there was little we could do about it. We huffed and puffed for another ten minutes and finally got a bit of control but could not really fashion a chance. Their right winger looked a real threat and Joe struggled to contain him. The left winger looked similar but was younger and Leonard managed to contain him a little. They were real terriers in the middle and at the back and as hard as we tried we never really had a decent shot. Some respite came five minutes before the break with a medical emergency in the dockers stand, swiftly followed by another in the upper BK. The ref took the players off for 15 minutes and played the last five before the half ended. It must have given NH some time to refocus the players and when we came out for the proper second half we looked a different team.
Honeyman made was for Tom and we pushed and pressed them back. We looked a different team. Tom ran his nuts off upfront and Coburn leapt and hassled and we got closer and closer. They still looked a threat but Tango marshalled the defence well, Jensen was on his toes and they looked rattled. However, they had every trick in the book to slow the game down including falling on the floor at the slightest touch and taking all the time we could to take a goal kick or free kick. Change was needed and off came Watmore and Sav and on went Azeez and the Serb. We turned the screw even more but taking off Hutch and Esse off and replacing them with Emakhu and Langstaff and going three at the back. We absolutely pummelled them and our reward came with 90 seconds to go. A good ball out to the left found Emakhu who hit a peach off a ball across the box to the far post where Azeez calmly slotted it across the keeper and into the other side of the goal. The Den went nuts. It was very worthy of our efforts of a second half revival. We saw out the remaining seconds with no drama.
Jensen played well and could do little about the goal he conceded. Leonard was a rock and very focussed. Hutch was solid but Joe had his work cut out to contain their winger and he didn’t do a great job either. Tango was immense, cool calm and collected and was never ruffled and was my MOM..Sav covered every blade of grass and Casper had a lot of control and was very good. Esse tried lots of tricks only some of which came off. Watmore was hard working and so was George whilst Coburn led the line well with little reward.
Bradshaw was busy but Azeez was lively and deserved his goal. The Serb was busy and Langstaff hardly broke sweat.
It was exciting and full of drama but Sunderland, despite being five men down looked worthy league leaders. Let’s hope we can get three points at Fratton Park on Wednesday!
We started poorly and they were on the front foot from the first whistle. They pushed and pressed us back and had much more of the ball. We struggled to get a foothold in the game or play any meaningful football and they had some decent chances and quite frankly it just seemed a matter of time. Well, ten minutes to be precise. Casper tried very hard to get to the ball but their midfielder held him off and held him off and the ref gave a free kick just to the left of our box. It was floated over to the far post, nodded goalwards, poorly cleared straight to one of their midfielders. Hit hit it low and hard and through a lot of legs and it nestled in the far corner for one nil. We could see it coming but there was little we could do about it. We huffed and puffed for another ten minutes and finally got a bit of control but could not really fashion a chance. Their right winger looked a real threat and Joe struggled to contain him. The left winger looked similar but was younger and Leonard managed to contain him a little. They were real terriers in the middle and at the back and as hard as we tried we never really had a decent shot. Some respite came five minutes before the break with a medical emergency in the dockers stand, swiftly followed by another in the upper BK. The ref took the players off for 15 minutes and played the last five before the half ended. It must have given NH some time to refocus the players and when we came out for the proper second half we looked a different team.
Honeyman made was for Tom and we pushed and pressed them back. We looked a different team. Tom ran his nuts off upfront and Coburn leapt and hassled and we got closer and closer. They still looked a threat but Tango marshalled the defence well, Jensen was on his toes and they looked rattled. However, they had every trick in the book to slow the game down including falling on the floor at the slightest touch and taking all the time we could to take a goal kick or free kick. Change was needed and off came Watmore and Sav and on went Azeez and the Serb. We turned the screw even more but taking off Hutch and Esse off and replacing them with Emakhu and Langstaff and going three at the back. We absolutely pummelled them and our reward came with 90 seconds to go. A good ball out to the left found Emakhu who hit a peach off a ball across the box to the far post where Azeez calmly slotted it across the keeper and into the other side of the goal. The Den went nuts. It was very worthy of our efforts of a second half revival. We saw out the remaining seconds with no drama.
Jensen played well and could do little about the goal he conceded. Leonard was a rock and very focussed. Hutch was solid but Joe had his work cut out to contain their winger and he didn’t do a great job either. Tango was immense, cool calm and collected and was never ruffled and was my MOM..Sav covered every blade of grass and Casper had a lot of control and was very good. Esse tried lots of tricks only some of which came off. Watmore was hard working and so was George whilst Coburn led the line well with little reward.
Bradshaw was busy but Azeez was lively and deserved his goal. The Serb was busy and Langstaff hardly broke sweat.
It was exciting and full of drama but Sunderland, despite being five men down looked worthy league leaders. Let’s hope we can get three points at Fratton Park on Wednesday!
