Date: 22nd December 2013 at 10:27am
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Silverlion’s report on our latest defeat.

A poor game and a very poor and disjointed performance. We started off in a flurry with some neat passing down the left and then Jimi hit a poor pass across the field which they intercepted and it was downhill from there.

The first half was fast and furious and they had the majority of possession but little end product. The wind and rain made it difficult for us as we played hoofball and could never reach the long balls played up to us,

By contrast, they played it simple, passed to each other, closed us down quickly and we just never got going. Woolford was peripheral for the whole game and Feeney huffed and puffed but never really hit a dangerous ball into the box. Jimi ran hard and Trotter put his foot in but neither him nor Jimi ever won the second ball. Whenever it broke free they were on it first and they probed and hustled but didn’t produce one direct shot on goal. That honour fell to Dunne on 42 minutes but the keeper got behind it comfortably.

The second half was a repeat performance of the first. From an attack the ball broke across their box and Woolford was bundled over but the ref played on. It went out to their right and their bloke cut inside, easily outpaced Malone and hit it into the far corner. Forde was beaten all ends up. We huffed and puffed and a decent move down the left ended with a tame header from Morison. We went 4-3-3 with Keogh replacing Jimi but he had little impact.

We huffed and puffed some more but the final touch just wasn’t there. Feeney and Dunne could never work out who was going to be the brave one to cross it. The harder we tried the worse it got. We pushed up and got caught out on the counter with a simple ball through the middle, Adomah rounded Forde and sealed the win. The knives and dissenting voices came out for Lomas and there was no doubt that they wanted blood.

You couldn’t really pin the blame on one player. The truth was that we played without passion or urgency and Boro just had a bigger desire to win. We were outfought and outmuscled and just did not play as a team. They were not great but they were better than us in many departments. I don’t know what their goal celebrations were about when they rushed for the number 21 shirt but they inflamed an already volatile situation.