After our record premier league win last week, we turned up for this week’s game full of confidence. The only down side was that we were forced to make changes to this week’s team due to a number of players being away. Therefore, into the side came Pattison and Iain. However, we started well and were trying to get our football going early with both Nigel and Homer trying to get the ball down and pass it around. However, the first chance went to Grendon who broke down the left and the cross was meant by a Grendon player but Jon was able to save the strike on goal. The game started to pick up but it was Grendon who were making the chances, as they packed the midfield and were breaking quickly. Grandon started a move from the back and played the ball around well switching it left then right. Grendon then found some space in the middle and played the ball out right, the ball was played into the striker and with a turn of pace they ran at our defence, AC managed to get a tackle in but the ball fell to a Grendon player who passed to an unmarked player in the box and his strike beat Jon. 1-0 to Grendon. The game continued at a quick pace and Grendon were making the better chances but on each occasion we either dealt with it or Jon managed to make a save. In fact Jon really kept us in the game during the first half as we only made a few chances which came from Homer breaking down the left and striking for goal. However, with Jerome working really hard and with Nigel, Pattison and Bruce trying to get things going we did start to create some chances. The ball was won in our half and played out to Homer who beat his man and passed to Nigel, Nigel turn inside and beat his man and started to run into Grendon’s half. A quick one two with Jerome and Nigel played the ball to Homer who’s first touch beat his player and enabled him to open up and go down the wing, he beat another challenge and was now in on goal but from just inside the box decided to strike for goal and the ball went into the bottom corner. 1-1 and it was great goal by Homer. Half Time came and it was 1-1.
At half time Franny encouraged his players to try a play the ball wide more and to use the wings, as the space was out wide and he also encouraged his team to be more positive and attack their defence with pace.
The second half started and Grendon were again making all the running and it was only 2 minutes into the second half and they had scored. They won the ball in their half and played a ball into the middle, the player turned and hit a ball over the top of the defence and the Grendon player was through on goal, with only the keeper the beat the Grendon striker went for goal but Jon made a great save. However, the ball fell nicely to the Grendon player who managed to reach the ball before AC and it was 2-1 to Grendon. We now needed to chase the game and we tried to get some football going but Grendon were packing the midfield and stopping us from playing. As we tried to push forward, we started to get caught at the back and Grendon broke quickly and played a few passes together and got the ball out wide. The player found a spare man just outside the box and as he beat a defender, he saw Jon off his line and lobbed the ball over Jon’s head and not even Shrek’s outstretched arm could stop the ball ending up in the back of the net. 3-1 to Grendon. Franny decided to make some changes and took off Iain and put on JT and changed the shape of the team to be more attacking. However, despite our efforts we were not able to create any great chances and the Grendon lino was not helping by raising his flag every time we broke quickly! AC came off and Franny replaced him. We were still pushing for a goal and as a result we were now getting caught at the back on nearly every Grendon break. Grendon broke down the left and Shrek went to defend the attack. He managed to push the player out wide but they managed to find a spare man coming through from the middle. He received the ball and started to move into the box, Franny managed to hold him back and tackle him and win the ball in the box but the loose ball went to a Grendon player who hit it first time into the bottom corner. 4-1 to Grendon.
After the high of last week, this result seemed to bring us back down to earth quickly. A disappointing performance from the Trees.

Result ; Bletchley Trees 1 Grendon Rangers 4 (HT 1-1)
Scorers : Homer
MOM : Jerome Thompson