Southgate County 1 - 5 Queen Mary Old Boys

Southgate County 1 – 5 Queen Mary Old Boys
(Barbosa)

After a number of close defeats in recent weeks Southgate went into this game hoping to kick-start our season and move up the league.

We started in the best possible way; within the first minute Mason played a lovely through ball to Miloshi who knocked the ball past the onrushing QM keeper, who not only took Miloshi out but handled the ball outside the box. The referee gave us a free kick but no further punishment to the QM keeper. If this had been a professional game it was a definite red card…but at this level, and in the first minute I suppose different rules apply…thankfully we exacted some punishment when Barbosa brilliantly curled in the free kick to the bottom corner. We then had a terrible 10 minutes and conceded two very soft goals. We followed this up with a really strong 20 minute spell where we pressed well and played some decent football, unfortunately we couldn’t finish any of the half chances we created. Typically we then just took our foot off the gas and for 5 minutes allowed QM to have the ball without any pressure being applied; the ball bounced in our box and a miscommunication led to us falling 3-1 behind. We proceeded to fluff a one on one and then missed an absolute sitter from a few yards on the stroke of half time to reduce the deficit. We had played well in patches but just shot ourselves in the foot throughout the first half.

We started the second half well and probably shaded the first 20 minutes without ever really opening QM up for a sustained period. However then we were undone by a long ball…gave a penalty away and went 4-1 down. Immediately we created our best chance of the half but tamely missed a one on one. With 10 minutes to go we should have done better with a close range header and then lost our footing with another one on one. Finally, to rub salt in our wounds we tried to overplay from the back about 5 times in one instance and conceded a fifth.

A 5-1 defeat looks bad on paper…and is bad. However this was actually a fairly even game, as said by the referee and QM players afterwards. The difference was we made crucial individual errors that led to simple and preventable goals, whilst we missed plenty of chances that came our way. On to next week…it can only get better…

Man of the match was Barbosa whose work rate was superb throughout, good on the ball, aggressive in a positive way and scored an excellent goal.

Team; Hindmarsh, Boadu, Bellinger, Woodward, James D, Barbosa, Seedat F, Patel, Miloshi, James M, O’Leary, Thirgood J, Smakaj, Seedat Z.