Olney Town 2 v Brookfield Rangers 1

My pre-match talk nearly came back to haunt us when I said that we had probably had our quota of bad decisions this year, Ben Ayers promptly had a great goal ruled out for offside !! (look at the positives Ben, a great run and a tremendous touch to dink it over the keeper) We bossed the first half and played some good football, great to see us making simple 5 or 6 yard passes that created so much space. On a small pitch any free kick was going to be a goal scoring opportunity, both first half goals coming in the same fashion. Jamie sent a high ball into the box that eluded everyone and dropped in at the far post to give us a lead, Brookfield (against the run of play) equalised from a good strike 25 yards out. Half time saw us going in at 1 - 1, had we gone in two or three up it would have been a fairer reflection on our first half performance. I hate half time sometimes, we can lose our way and lose momentum that we may have had before the break, this was demonstrated again today when Brookfield came out looking a team very hungry for the three points. To our credit we weathered the storm, only just at times though, as the half progressed we grew in composure and started once again to play some nice football. We used the wings well today and delivered some great early balls into the box, if it was not for their keeper we could have closed this game out a lot earlier, he made great saves from Ben Lucas, Harry and Joel. Today we played for the full 80 minutes and were rightly rewarded, Joel rounding the keeper to slot the ball home, a great finish that the move deserved. The back four had to work hard again today, not always pretty but so often effective. As with last week everyone gave their all, we still need to release the ball earlier at times, thus permitting us to capitalise on our pace. No real gripes though, one of those games six months ago we would have lost, showed character and a real desire today and you should be proud. You are growing up as a football team, Mr Sweeney demonstrating that on more than one occasion with some subtle shirt pulling and the odd obstruction, if it breaks the play up then its the right decision, there was nothing malicious in our play today, just a real desire to win. Man of the Match could again of gone to seven or eight players, Fred, Callum, Harry, Ben Ayers, Joel and Jake all had great games. Today however it goes to Ben Lucas, he arrived at the club with an awful lot of expectation being placed upon him, today he delivered a superb performance, he let his football do the talking and Brookfield found him a real handful when he pushed up top. Well done Ben, keep it up, that goes to all of you, I can enjoy my week so much more now. A good three points against a decent side.