1s Miss Out Despite Strong Start

Having had the initial fixture cancelled due to a frozen pitch, a slightly weakened 1st XI lined up against Staines this past Saturday. Unfortunately, the winter break did not seem to work its’ magic for the boys as despite going 1-0 up after 5 minutes, Staines battled back to score from 2 short corners and take the match 2-1.

The boys were reasonably pleased with their first half performance as they kept possession and looked comfortable. Staines sat back, closed down the space and waited to hit on the counter at any opportunity. These opportunities were very limited though and the team had reason to feel optimistic after Joe Allen deflected low at the far post to make it 1-0 after a period of sustained pressure. Unfortunately, a good save from Nathan Bullen led to a contentious short corner which was well worked and resulted in a right-side deflection. 1-1 at half time.

Blackheath never regained any fluency in the second half and really struggled as Staines began to gain in confidence. Basic errors let the team down and there was an air of inevitability about the second goal, which although coming about from another disputable short corner, was well put away by the opposition flicker.

It was a game in which Blackheath had plenty of opportunities to win despite not being at their best, but as we have seen too many times this season, the boys were not able to turn chances into points. There were positives with Joe Allen and Dave Lawrence continuing their good form from December and an excellent debut from Edward Fleet at the back, however lots to work on to turn this season around.

DoD: Eddy Forshaw

MoM: Dave Lawrence