MIDFIELD MALAISE MARS FIVES

A very tough match against Old Williamsonians who were sporting some well-skilled new faces. We aren't used to losing.

We saw a lot of back and forth with attack and counter attack to mark the early part of the game. 20 minutes into the first half it was clear that we lacked coordination in our centre midfield. Sometimes it seemed that players simply weren't there, or were playing too high, and inaccessible to our defenders.

We seemed to have these problems sorted out by midway through the second half, with scores at 2-2, but ironically that was when Old W's made the coup de grâce after an unfortunate (and uncommon) slip-up from our backs.

A worrying sign was our lack of penetration into the circle à la early last season. When it finally got in, we then struggled to make shots on goal. We needed Max. But it's always difficult when the opposition sports 9 or 10 players in the D.

The entire back line was stellar - Jamie, Fenno, Ravi, Nathan and Tom - and without them it would have been an absolute rout. Man of the match to Nathan. Thanks to Senaka and Antony Sturgess for umpiring, and a credit to both teams for being nice to the umpires.

Goals:
Toby took a shot and it was deflected in by Andy.
Toby smashed the ball at the goal, with sonic boom, went through the backboard, probably hit one of the Eltham boys on the rugby field.