DUNDONALD CHASE F.C.
NEWS ARCHIVE

12 October 2003 - Morden & District League Division 8 at Wimbledon Common Extensions

Erskine Rovers 3(1)
23,63,90
DCFC 1(1)
Richie 13

What's all this about? More handbags at nine paces?

Four games down and four defeats, it doesn't exactly give us much confidence and although we have generally got better as the season (including pre-season) has progressed, there was one very worrying issue after today's game. We only had 3 real attempts on goal and all of those came in the first 20 minutes.

With so many new players coming into the squad this season, it is almost inevitable that we aren't going to win every game we play, maybe the exact opposite of this is a bit worrying, but there is no doubt that we have a good squad to choose from. It is still not clear what we are going to do about the problems up front, who is going to play there, or if we realistically still need to find at least two more players who can play in that position. We lost the game today simply due to our lack of aerial presence. Erskine gave us precious little time to do anything creative, as soon as we found ourselves in possession, it would never take too long for us to lose it.

Richie's strike after 13 minutes was a real confidence booster. At the time we were playing as good as we have played all season. It instantly looked that Erskine weren't going to enjoy another easy ride, like they have enjoyed in those pre-season friendlies. Ed listened to Richie's screams on the edge of the box, as he neatly layed the ball back and Richie fired a sweet strike into the top left corner. It was just what we needed to get us going. Earlier Kirk hit a great strike, bending his effort towards the top right, only for the keeper to make a clean save. Adrian fired narrowly wide, but sadly this was all we could offer Erskine.

As the half wore on, Erskine got more and more into the game. Dan who thankfully agreed to play in goal at the last request, made a great save, pushing the strike wide and generally played really well, but sadly failed to gather an effort later on and Erskine pounced and were level. Erskine kept breaking, occasionally getting caught off-side, but when they broke free, they always looked a danger, a couple of clearances off the line, kept us hanging on. Erskine also had a number of efforts over the bar, trying to catch Dan off his line.

A stern half-time team talk was unfortunately met with a wet start to the second half, as with only a minute gone, Erskine hit the post. There is no doubt that we struggled in this half. We did absolutely nothing to test the keeper and were almost panicking to string any sort of rhythm together. The hard bobbly pitch may not have helped us, but in all fairness, it affected both sides the same. Maybe we need to be more direct, it certainly worked for Erskine as they frequently punted long balls forwards, which although were generally dealt with very well, in particular by Tom (who was outstanding), it still caused us problems.

Dan had generally done a good job in goal, but made mistakes for the next two, the first coming out to punch away a cross and missing, which Erskine greatfully accepted and a low drive which he failed to gather, with the Erskine forward happy to finish off and rap up his hatrick.

The second half was full of stoppages, some were for genuine injuries including a nasty clash of heads. Tuff and Kirk got involved in some scraps, Tuff may have been sent off by other ref's for his explosive encounter with Erskine's hat-trick man, both players got booked. Meetings with Erskine have always been sporting in the past, sadly that wasn't the case today. But maybe that can be seen as positive, as despite generally being second best, we had plenty of heart and fight.

We will win eventually, the question is, which side of Christmas?