3s Go Down to Cliftonville

The 3s made the long journey to Cliftonville this Saturday just past, in a much changed line up with included five season debutants after the club had been ravaged by poor availability all week.

With a few key players moving up to the 2s, it was always going to be a tough afternoon, but never one that was beyond the much maligned 3s team this year. We know the truth in the team, and even though results have been poor, performances have generally been good with one or two mistakes generally costing points and matches, and this weekend was a similar story I'm loathed to report.

The match started positively for the 3s, with Nick Surry and David Collington getting early ball in dangerous positions and balls whizzing across the D without a final touch, but it would be Cliftonville who would score first, after a well worked short corner found the bottom of the net leaving Roman without a chance. A few minutes later, it would be 1-1, and fully deserved after some pressure in the D found Chris Brown at the far post in space, leaving him to finish expertly.

Despite this well deserved equaliser, the 3s would go into their shells at a critical time in the match when they possibly could, and should have taken the game by the scruff of the neck. A few minutes later, some very poor defensive play would lead to the 3s giving the ball away cheaply at the back and allowing Cliftonville to attack the D, when the ball should have been cleared and the score would be 2-1 at half time.

Being behind at half time was definitely not deserved, and the chat at half time was about trying to cut out errors which had cost us in the first half. Generally the mood was positive, and we really felt that the game was there for the taking in the 2nd half. The boys were fired up.

However, disaster would strike a few minutes into the 2nd half. Possibly the worst kind of goal to concede, and such a bad time in the match. Browner would try a criminal cross field pass that would essentially lead to a 2 on 1 for the score to be 3-1. Disaster. But an error, rather than good play, and we still felt like the game was there.

Heads would drop following this however, and a few minutes later another short would lead to the score being 4-1, which was completely undeserved. At this point the 3s would rally, and come back fighting. A real testament to the desire in the side to play well, and the talent that some of these guys have. They didn't give up, and two goals in the last 10 minutes from Nick Surry were not only well deserved, but made it a very edgy last couple of minutes for Cliftonville who would hold onto a 4-3 win.

It was exceptionally frustrating to lose 4-3 in this one. Two goals coming from individual errors, and generally having a lot of play in the Cliftonville half meant that the score could and should have been very different indeed. The boys fought back extremely hard, and there were lots of positives, Nick Surry getting two well deserved goals and the MoM, David Collington being a constant threat and the young lads, Ben Heggarty, Charlie Wakeling & Cameron Walker-Pow who stepped in and played their hearts out.

A lot of thanks to the Hs who stepped up as well on this very tricky weekend.

All in all - extremely disappointing, but there is so much there to take heart from. We have some very big games coming up, which will make or break the season. I'd like to say we're about to turn the corner, I believe that we will. But sometimes belief doesn't equate to reality. We know what we have to do. We have to improve, we have to stop making silly mistakes and feeling pressure when there shouldn't be any.

We're up for the fight!