Southgate Super Vets marked their first game of 2020 with a hard fought loss against a competitive Aloysian’s team.
County started brightly pinging the ball around on the 3G pitch with a line up consisting of Lewis in goal; Lovett, Jones, shah & Kerby policing the back; Farrer, J Anderson , Bateman & Kelly providing the finesse & steel in midfield with Milne & Hassan leading the line.
However, a combination of poor passing & trying to play out from the back meant that Aloysians grew into the game & started to peg us back.
County continued to look dangerous on the break through the pace of Hassan & the hard running of Milne. Both had chances to open the scoring but it was Aloysians who went ahead from a set piece. A corner was floated across to the far post evading Lewis, Kelly tried to head it clear & it went in off the underside of the cross bar.
Robbie Ross will be pleased to know that the curse of the Southgate Sniper was still in evidence…. as Jones’ will testify after being felled before half time.
A combination of last minute interceptions, hard work & good keeping from County kept the scoreline to 1-0 at half term despite Aloysian’s dominance.
O’Leary replaced Mine with White coming on for Kelly & we kicked off the second half. Immediately we started on the stronger foot with our shorter passing & interplay starting to dominate play.
We had a number of half chances but again it was the Oppo who drew first blood against the run of play from another set piece. A central freekick was tipped onto the cross bar by Lewis, with the Oppo first to the follow up. Strong declarations of offside from the County players but the ref allowed the goal to stand.
County weren’t to be put off by this & continued to press. Shah came off with an injury with Kerby moving to centre back & Wright filling in at left back. Spackman also came on for Farrah & change of formation saw him go upfront with Hassan coming from deep. Within 5 mins Spackman combined with Hassan who cut in from the right, hit the left hand post with O’Leary firing the rebound high into the top of the net…. Game on.
For the next 15 mins County dominated with a succession of chances – both O’Leary & Hassan were unlucky not to level it. The Oppo continued to look dangerous on the break & Lewis was injured stopping one of these. Farrer deputised in goal & finally the management team decided that a like for like replacement was required for the last 15 mins with Lamont coming on for Lovett to bring more pace at right back.
Unfortunately we couldn’t find the leveller & went down to a 2-1 loss. We deserved a draw at least out of this, fought well & played some good football at times.
We have a chance for revenge with our next friendly being on Sun 08 Mar v Old Aloysians at their place.