Threes watch the Hawks

After last week, the threes were demanding a much improved effort, and to a certain degree they got it, despite going down to the league leaders.

The talk in the week was about working harder for each other and showing a little bit of fight, and there is no doubt that this was achieved this weekend. A frantic first half, saw Tunbridge dominate early on, and it only took 3 or 4 minutes for Tunbridge to win their first of many short corners. This was the tone for the afternoon. With drag flicks reigning down on the Heath goal, it took a great save from Sam and a deflection over the bar from the skipper to keep the scores level early on.

Under constant pressure however, the 3s stood firm, and despite Sam having to make a couple of clearances, and the defenders working hard, the 3s always looked like they may catch Tunbridge on the break. With a few minutes to go before half time and with the score still 0-0, the chance would arrive; and after some nice work creating a 2 on 1 opportunity, we would hit the post, when a goal looked more likely. If only that had gone in!

0-0 at half time then, and there was no doubt that the performance had been there. The talk was about a big 15 minutes, and holding firm, whilst thinking about catching them on the break.

Unfortunately however, that didn't happen, and 5 minutes into the 2nd half, Tunbridge would break the deadlock, with a well worked short corner, which Sam will be disappointed that he didn't save. Annoyingly, it was an extremely soft goal to concede, when the defence had been standing up to pressure all afternoon. The 3s continued to battle however, and did look dangerous going forward, despite lacking a real cutting edge in front of goal.

Minutes later however, it was 2-0 when a defensive lapse by a very solid James Goldsmith Jnr allowed Tunbridge to go clean through and capitalise. The 3s pushed forward and created openings and perhaps should have made one count, but alas it wasn't to be. With a minute to go, it was 3 for Tunbridge as some mis communication between Sam and Matt on a short led to another soft goal. Ultimately that didn't matter however, as the result was already confirmed, and despite a vastly improved effort the 3s would be disappointed again.

You know what though, I'm happy. Yes - there were some absolutely shocking goals there. But, we were competitive. Perhaps we need to think about our tactics for next week and how we can be a bit more creative. If we play like that most weeks, and keep out the soft goals, we can and should start to get results. There really were a lot of positives in the performance. Let's build on it.