This game was changed due to Potterspury pulling out of the league and it was always going to be a tough encounter for the Trees as Claydon are normally a very strong side every year. However, we again took a strong squad, despite having a few key players out through injury. The key message was to start the game well and be solid and take the game to Claydon. However, we found ourselves 1-0 down within 5 minutes. We were not dealing with the long ball over the top and after a few attempts Claydon were clear through on Jon’s goal and a good finish resulted in a goal. 1-0 to Claydon. Claydon continued to pile on the pressure and were winning a number of corners and looking dangerous from set pieces. Two corners followed in quick succession and on each occasion Claydon found a spare man put failed to hit the target. The pressure was mounting and after another good corner from the home side we failed to clear the ball and a ball over the top of our defenders resulted in another Claydon player clean through on goal. 2-0 to Claydon. We managed to re-group and keep Claydon at bay and started to get into the game put without really creating a good clean chance.
The second half started and we changed our system to try and get ourselves back into the game. We put Jerome up top to attack the Claydon defence and put Homer just behind him to try and get our football going. The first 10 minute where positive as we were seeing much more of the ball and starting to put Claydon’s goal under pressure. After some good play by the Trees and putting together some good passes, we put the ball out left and Jerome and Homer combined well and crossed the ball into the Claydon box which fell to Pattison who was just inside the 18 yard box and struck the ball into the corner. 2-1 and the Trees were back in the game. Sadly, it was short lived. We again failed to clear the ball from an attack and the ball was again played over the top and Jon was not able to save a good shot. 3-1 to Claydon and we were chasing the game again after scoring 5 minutes earlier. We tried to put Claydon under pressure and get men forward and while this was risky we looked to chase the game. We were about to change our system and just before we made our first sub, Claydon scored again from a corner which was the result of some poor defending from the Trees. 4-1 to Claydon. We now made our first sub and took Looty off who felt his hamstring go and put Iain on and we went to 3 at the back. Soon after that we took Pattison off and put Oli on and tried to use his height to win the ball the middle more. We had a great chance from a corner which Homer played short to JT who struck the ball first time from about 30 yards and the ball just avoided the top corner. Despite the result Jon had so far had an excellent game by making some excellent saves and keeping the result from being even worse. However, after Scott handballed in the box Claydon won a penalty. However, Jon continued his excellent game by making a great save by diving to his left. The game continued and after again failing to clear the ball from our box a Claydon player picked up a loose ball and chased through on goal and Scott tackled the player and the ref gave another penalty. This time Jon was not successful but he again guessed right but was not able to stop the ball going into the corner. 5-1 to Claydon and another disappointing result for Bletchley Trees.



Trees Scorer – Pattison
MOM – Jon Newsham