Hempnall FC

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As usual the post match conversation with Paddy was a friendly, interesting and engaging one. His feeling that with his ‘red tinted glasses’ the game was a 4-0 home win, us with our ‘maroon hats’ feeling it wouldn’t have been a travesty had we gone away with a draw. But that’s football for you, all about opinions.

Unusually in ‘my opinion’ the game was a poor one, I think added to by the players not on display on the day.

For the home side Cox, Hart & Murphy were all on wedding duty. For us the ‘battle’ against Acle the week before cost us 4 of the squad in Lee Devlin, Harwin, Cudden & Halliwell. With JP at a funeral & Nichols going down with food poisoning as we were about depart, that left us short on options at the back.

Anticipating the Blofield line up became hard with the absentees, so a gamble in drafting Wenham into the 3^rd central defensive position misfired and we looked all at sea for and the hosts took full advantage scoring after 30 seconds. Brown was given more room than Ben Player needs on a dance floor and gave the hosts a goal start.

A quick reshuffle swapping Devlin and Wenham, saw us take a much more structured hold of the game and arguably shade proceedings with Lloyd and stand in keeper Forsdick being equally worked. Couldn’t get Paddy’s agreement on that one though lol!

Halftime saw us in optimistic mood, with us feeling we were still in with a good shout and in our opinions us looking the fitter and more mobile of the sides. No agreement on that one either by the way.

However, not learning from the spasmodic start in the first half we were caught cold again when some slack defensive work allowed Blofield to score with ease. Luke Adcock wasn’t shut down close enough and crossed for Stocker to head home totally unmarked on the far post.

The heads didn’t go down and we continued to work hard and create chances which Lloyd did well to save on 2 or 3 occasions.

My frustration came from the fact that we continually gave the ball away cheaply, our ball retention being poor as we persisted in trying to force the issue far too early.

I felt that this was the main difference between the sides on the day.

Blofield's extra know how gave them a far better use of the ball, In some cases our naivety anda lack of knowledge being on prominent display.

Kristian Jones and Jon King were introduced as we reshuffled the pack in an attempt to get back in the game.

With the clock ticking down our persistence did finally pay off when Browny found room on the left and crossed for skipper Player to head home.

This caused a few anxious moments in the Blofield camp as the possibility of 2 points slipping away came into focus but we didn’t really create a further worth while chance.

On a day when we performed poorly, did get agreement on that one, Marty Addison looked a class act displaying the composure and intelligence missing from many of his colleagues on the day.

However the fact that we were not looking to win the Sterry Cup means the points were far more important for Blofield than us!

A brief favourable comment on the referee Mr Griffiths who I felt produced a ‘consistent’ approach on the day, can you ask for more?

Well done to the Reserves who produced another good result, beating their counterparts from Loddon 4-0 to increase their lead at the top of the league.

Footnote for Blofield , all comments made were said in good humour with no harm intended. We enjoyed the Banter as usual.