Regent Lose

On Saturday we welcomed Braintree Reserves for our first game of the 2012-13 season. Terry and Joe had once again done a great job on the pitch which is looking superb. Webster was without Morley and Philbo who were serving bans carried over from last season which also ruled out new signing Pagey for the same reason. Another new signing Darren Moyes was also unavailable due to an injury picked up during pre-season. Despite this we still had 16 to pick from and started the game superbly getting on the front foot and putting early pressure on the away side. We were rewarded after 5 minutes when Griggsy swung in a corner which Kev flicked on for the poacher Jake Holman to bury in the net and make it 1-0. After 20 minutes we nearly increased our lead when a run made from Thommo was met with a lovely weighted pass by Sam Holman but unfortunately for us the keeper saved the rasping shot from Thommo. The away side were now growing in to the game and on 2 occasions some good pass and move football from them created chances but Matt Griggs saved well. However in the 30th minute the game was level when a long through ball over our defence saw Griggsy come off his line but their forward was quicker to the ball and chipped Griggsy to make it 1-1. This gave them more confidence and till the half they had the upper hand but we defended well and still created a chance of our own, when Clarky’s free kick found Sam Holman but his slight touch flicked against the post and the follow up was ruled offside. HT 1-1
We started the 2nd half poorly but credit to the away side who came out and put us under pressure for the first 15 minutes and were rewarded when after a dubious offside decision their winger crossed for the same striker Andrade to volley home and make it 1-2. Shortly after Griggsy pulled off a superb reaction save to deny them increasing their lead. We began to come back in to the game but a change was made to try and change the pattern of the game with Tevez coming on for Wallis. This had the desired affect and 5 minutes after his introduction a through ball from Clarky, found Tevez, who lobbed the on rushing keeper with a quality finish to make it 2-2. A minute later, Rymer, found himself in space in the 18 yard box but his left foot shot was scuffed in to the side netting. With both teams still looking to win the game, we made our final 2 changes with Salter and Danny Hill coming on for Clarky and Thommo. With only a minute left another controversial offside decision saw the away side get the rub of the green once more and despite blocking the original shot the ball found its way to the edge of the box where it was smashed back in the corner of our goal to make it 2-3. FT 2-3
A disappointing result but after a rather indifferent pre-season, games wise and players unavailable it was an improvement, which we must look to increase and make right Tuesday to get our season off and running.