An away match at Rudgwick and what turned into the worst first half performance I have ever seen the team play .
At training and before the game we had talked about not being complacent just because Rudgwick are second to bottom .
We started well and after a minute Jack Rogers had put us in front with a great strike. What followed was a horror show as everyone then started to play for themselves and not the team .
After 20 minutes a scramble in the Rudgwick box led to Toby Davis and Will Aitken both stabbing the ball into and empty net to put us 2-0 up which we really didn’t deserve to be. Rudgwick were definitely playing the better football with some very good passing and they seemed to have more energy and life about their play and they got their reward with a nice finish to make it 2-1.
For most of the first half and certainly for the Rudgwick goal the 3 Cranleigh defenders were playing against 6-7 players as our midfield seemed reluctant to track back . With the score at 2-1 to Cranleigh I have never been more pleased to hear the half time whistle.
Tears and tantrums followed with the half time team talk but I eventually calmed down.
The second half started with Cranleigh playing better and soon went 3-1 up with a Deon Mubaiwa goal .
Deon was starting to put himself about a bit up front and Ethan Payne was getting a hold of the midfield .
William Aitken scored our 4th and very kindly gave the disputed 2nd goal to Toby Davis which showed if we weren’t playing as a team we were still teammates.
Cranleigh were starting to dominate but Rudgwick were still having chances with Izzy Denton – Miller producing a fantastic save from his own defender. Ethan Payne scored a 5th with a great driving run and shot inside the post.
Despite going 5-1 down Rudgwick kept playing good football and they were a credit to their coaching team.
Deon finished the scoring with the 6 th when he broke and beat the keeper in a 1 v 1. At the final whistle I couldn’t help but feel that despite the scoreline we had got away with one .
No disrespect to Rudgwick who played a fine game but a better team would of been well ahead of us by halftime.
Ive never seen a game when so many very good players have had such a bad game but at least we pulled it around in the second half and showed some fight and spirit
Lets just hope we have learnt from this game and no late night xbox/playstation on Friday nights from now on.
SCORERS
Deon Mubaiwa – 2
Toby Davis – 1
Jack Rogers – 1
William Aitken – 1
Ethan Payne – 1
Man of the Match – Ethan Payne
