Boxing day woes....

We travelled to halstead today for a local derby on boxing day and hoping for a positive result given the day and the squad we were taking,
Ater a warm up on the heaviest piece of ground ever we knew it was important not to start slowly and to be fair we didn't. We controlled the fist 25 minutes and carved out several chances, firstly Rymer crossing into the box and the ball getting stuck in the mud between Philbo and the keeper on the line, then Rymer slicing from 7 yards when it seemed easier to score, great play between Rymer and Philbo then left Philbo shooting straight at the keeper.
Shortly after clarky tested there keepr from distance but it was all in vain as our final ball, finishing and decision making in and around the final third wasn't quite clicking into place.

We came in 0-0 at half time and felt ifnwenupped the tempo and carried on creating chances like we had we would get something from the game.
To be fair halstead came at us second half and we never got to grips with it.

They took the lead from a corner when Sam Mansfield, misred the flight of the ball and flew over him for the ball to strike Hughes and cross the line.

We then had 2 huge penalty shouts, the first of which Ricky was brought down, the Lino flagged but the ref overruled without any discussion, then phil brought down again the ref overruling.

Ironically they then we t up our end and a challenge from behind from club captain Joseph gave the ref the opportunity to give them a penalty which he did and they scored making it 2-0

We then fell to pieces spending more time arguing with the ref and they scored 2 more late on, one from a corner and again from a defensive error.

So 4-0 and not a good day at the office.

It strikes me in this league the refs and linesman are more interested in who is in the dugout and the discipline than getting the big decisions right.

Highlights of the day were the efforts put in by most for the Xmas jumper banta competition, sam Mansfield, Morley, Webster all some of the best, disappointing that Harry, clarky, grids and others chose not too and let the rest of the squad down.