Holmesdale 2-4 Sporting Bengal

Attendance: 50

Scorers:

Holmesdale: Magnus (og 60) Broome (70)

Sporting Bengal: Pipim (7) & (89), Schmitt (20), Jarijs (88)

This really was the proverbial 6 pointer, with 4 teams on 12 points and all those 4 playing each other it was an opportunity to put some space between at least 2 of the other teams.

Sporting came into the game on the back of two straight wins and obviously a much improved side compared to the one we faced earlier in the season. This was confirmed when we received their team sheet and it contained only 3 of the team that faced us previously.

There is no hiding the fact that we are on a bad run at the moment at least as far as results are concerned. The spirit within the squad however remains as good as it’s always been and after a bit of a heart to heart in the dressing room the boys were well up for the game.

We started the game brightly and put Sporting on the back foot but without creating any clear cut opportunities. It was a little against the run of play they Sporting took the lead, after failing to clear the danger the ball found it’s way into our box and was rather scruffily despatched into the net by Pipim. With the run that we’re on you might have expected us to fold but to our credit we took the game to the visitors in search of an equaliser. This should have come after only a few minutes when a great cross found its way to Hughes in the 6 yard box who then somehow managed to put the ball wide of the target. This was to be regretted when after 20 minutes Sporting were awarded a free kick on the edge of our box. After Schmitt hit the ball into the wall it took a wicked deflection into the opposite side of the goal after the keeper had gone the way of the original shot. 2-0 and it was hard to take, we had easily been the better side but found ourselves 2 goals behind. Undeterred we continued to pressurise the Sporting goal but could not find a finish.

The half time team talk was extremely difficult as it was unbelievable that we were actually behind, let alone by 2 goals. Same again but with an end product and we were all confident that we could still win the game.

The second half started with us well and truly on top and pushing for that elusive breakthrough. It eventually came when after a good cross across the face of the goal was turned into the net by the Sporting defender after pressure from Dadson. Game well and truly on and we simply laid siege to the Sporting goal. The pressure finally told when another good cross was headed in by Broome to level the scores at 2-2. At this stage there would surely only be one winner as we were totally dominant in all areas. Try as they might and even after the introduction of two forwards to replace those that had run their legs off we could not find that third goal. The game seemed to be heading for a draw, when inexplicably and unbelievably we managed to concede two goals in the last two minutes. The first was a speculative shot form Jarjis which found its way into the bottom right corner of our goal. Then to rub salt into the wounds Pipim finished very well from a tight angle to leave the score line at 2-4.

You have to say well done to Sporting who worked tirelessly, but I am absolutely speechless to explain how we managed to lose the game. The performances are not as bad as the results are suggesting and all we can do is keep going. We will turn the corner soon there is no doubt about it, we just need something to go our way. We are maybe having to pay back all the luck we used in the last two seasons but I didn’t expect to have to do it with interest.

Holmesdale: Mitchell, Broome (Strotten), Bushell, Nicoli, Tolfrey, Read, Dadson (Creasey), Simon (Greenslade), MacDiarmid, Hughes, O’Rourke. Unused: Prime & Hamilton