Another close and low scoring game against Reading. We beat them pre-season but it’s the league that counts and with a 5-2 defeat earlier in the season, today we lost 9-5. Both games followed similar patterns.
Rule #1 in attack must be to catch the ball before shooting. We must all re-read the rule book before next weeks game at Penarth. Too many times we worked a good opening only to stuff up the final pass/catch. We knew the Reading keeper was quality. All our shots had to count. Anything from range or not in a corner was easy pickings, but we thought too much about the shot and forgot about catching the damm ball first!
In the Spencer goal, Colin had an interesting moment at the start of the 2nd quarter when he saved Reading shot and his goalie head snapped in two! With most of our spare kit in Manchester with the juniors, we had no replacement goalie head. After some discussion and head scratching Colin was seriously thinking of playing in goal with a normal outfield stick! Luckily the Reading goalie agreed for us to use his spare stick – many thanks.
This result was very disappointing. Our general problem this season is scoring goals. Today our midfield and set-up play was good. Dan, TJ and Will Walker all created threats from midfield that sucked in the Reading long-sticks, allowing our attack to get space. We hit the pipe at least twice and the Reading goalie pulled off his usual MVP saves throughout the match.
At the back, Mike Goodman was ruthless and hit hard – a well deserved man of the match. Elsewhere in defense we were so-so. Alan was below par compared to his normal high standards. Craig, Matt and Rob were doing the basics OK but it never felt like we were in top gear.
Reading are not dynamite in attack, but took their few shooting chances well. If we converted half our missed opportunities this game would of been much closer – arguably it would of seen Spencer come out on top. Next week’s game at Penarth now becomes a must-win!
Man of the match = Mike Goodman
Spencer were;
Colin Byrne, Alan Keeley, Rob Gooch, Mike Goodman, Matt Blom, Craig Simkin, Dan Hughes (1 goal), Will Walker, TJ Chucoski (1), Toby Thompson, Stephen Greszczyszyn, Peter Sayia (2), Will Stern (1), Nick Flew