This week saw us have a break from league action and turn our attentions to the county cup. It has been a number a years since either Saturday has had a good run in this competition and the pre-match team talk encouraged the team to put in a good performance to progress in the competition and to start some momentum after the last few weeks performances in the league.
The game started very positively for the Trees and the players had responded to the managers request to start well and with pace. Early on we were putting Thornborough under pressure and creating chances, with both Homer and Nigel linking well and getting shots in on goal. However, it was a great move in the middle from Bruce and Oli that allowed Nigel to pick up the ball in space and drive at the Thornborough and as Nigel moved into the penalty area he was tackled and the referee awarded a penalty. Up step Nigel and 1-0 to the Trees. The game progressed and we started to lose the ball to easily and Thornborough started to build the pressure. The ball was played over the top and as we failed to clear the ball broke to a Thornborough player and he struck the ball past Jon. 1-1 the score. Thornborough continued to apply the pressure and they soon won a free kick on the edge of the box. The Thornborough player struck the ball straight at the wall and the wall failed to block the shot and Jon only just missed the ball. 2-1 to Thornborough. We now started to look like a broken side and we could not get any football going, despite all the effort from the players. Thornborough were on the attack again and won a corner. The ball was crossed in and a free header gifted Thornborough a 3rd goal. 3-1 to Thornborough. Despite our effort to try and get some movement and football going, Thornborough were looking to kill the game and after some good football down the right, the ball was switched over our defence and a Thornborough player picked the ball up and rolled a defender and as he moved into our box struck the ball low and hard and past Jon into the corner. 4-1 to Thornborough. In 25 minutes we had gone from 1-0 up to 4-1 down.
At half time JT was replaced and John Hall came on.
Our 2nd half performance was better in that we kept Thornborough to very few chances, although you got the feeling that they dropped the pace after the damage had been done in the 1st half. We also really struggled to create any real chances in the 2nd half to put Thornborough under pressure. After some back chat from Ben to referee, the ref decide he had had enough and he sent Ben off. Trees now down to 10 men and 4-1 down…..not a great afternoon. AC cam e on for the last 20 minutes, with Iain coming off and Franny replaced Pattison for the last 10 minutes, after Pattison had a groin problem.
Another disappointing result for the Trees and the only good news was that we were to return next week to Thornborough in the league and hopefully put right the mistakes from this game.

Result - Thornborough 4 Bletchley Trees 1 (HT 4-1)
Scorers – Nigel Price (Pen)
MOM – Oli Finch