A depleted Trees team turned up in Leighton Buzzard this week for our next game against Southcott, as we had more players injured or called into work, which meant Franny had to make some last minute adjustments to the team. However, we tried to get positive early with a good warm up and team talk before the game and it did seem to work.

The 1st half was pretty much all Trees! We were making all the running and putting the Southcott defence under a lot of pressure. We were using both flanks well as both Homer & Ian were having loads of space to attack Southcott and create some chances. JT switched the play from right to left and found Shrek, Shrek passed to Homer who played the ball inside to Jon Hall. Jon was able to beat two men and pass the ball back to Homer who was now running down the wing, the ball was crossed in and Jerome controlled but was not able to get his shot off but the ball fell to Nigel who did strike the ball and the keeper made a very good save.

We kept up the pressure on Southcott and both Jon Hall and Bruce were winning the battle in midfield with both players getting on the ball and creating space for us to exploit. Bruce won the ball in the middle and passed it out to JT and JT beat his man and but a ball down the line for Ian. Ian won the ball and past inside to Nigel who put a great ball inside for Ian to chase on to which he did but his strike was just wide.

A goal looked certain and a few minutes later we again broke down the left with Homer beating his man and played a good one, two with Jon Hall. Homer again got to the box and cut inside and passed the ball to Jerome who was tackled but again the ball fell to Nigel and this time his strike hit the back of the net. 1-0 to the Trees.

We continued to put the pressure on and look for the second goal and after Homer won the ball in the middle and created space on the left, Shrek was able to run down the line. Shrek beat two men and put the ball into the box but sadly Southcott were able to clear. In the final few minutes of the half, Southcott had the ball in defence and played it out through the midfield, the ball went out left and their player beat two challenges and was able to cross the ball into our box. The cross was deep and missed all our players and one of the Southcott strikers had managed to avoid being marked and headed the ball towards goal and Jon was not able to reach it. 1-1 at half Time and Southcott had only had 2 corners and 1 attempt on goal!
The second half started and within 5 minutes we had seemed to forgotten how we were playing in the 1st half. Southcott were now doing all the running and putting us under pressure and we were giving the ball away to easy. The Southcott pressure continued for 20 minutes but we were managing to keep them at bay.

However, after we lost the ball in their half, Southcott were quick to break and the ball was played quickly out wide and then a ball was played over the top and for once we found ourselves to high and the ball landed behind us. Terry tried to chase the Southcott player down but he hit the ball over Jon as he came out to try and meet the ball. 2-1 to Southcott.

The big difference in the game happened in the next 5 minutes. Southcott continued to put pressure on us, like we had done in the 1st half, the difference was we did not get a 2nd goal to kill the game. Southcott had scored again within 5 minutes and with roughly the same move. We lost the ball in their half and a quick break resulted in a ball over the top and the Southcott striker took his chance. 3-1 to Southcott. We changed the system to push our attackers up the field and we did create a few good chances in the last 20 minutes. Homer beat 2 men and went through on goal but shot wide, Matt Bamber was on now for Ian and playing up top and he was put through with the keeper to beat but did not get his shot away, Homer hit the post from a free kick and Jon Hall had a shot blocked in the box.

The final whistle blew and it was another disappointing resulting for the Trees. The big lesson being, we need to take our chances and we need to ensure we concentrate for 90 minutes.

Southcott 3 Bletchley Trees 1 (HT 1-1)

Scorers – Nigel Price
MOM – Jon Hall