It’s often said there’s a fine line between winning and losing. We are finding this season there’s a gulf between playing well and winning and playing well and losing by a fair margin!

Yes again, a scoreline of 6-15 does not do us justice or show our improvement from last weeks shambles against Purley. Our unforced errors were reduced and we moved the ball well, especially in the first half.

This was nothing like our previous meeting this season. Then we were crushed, mostly thanks to a dynamite Hampstead midfield line, today with a slightly different look about them, we matched up evenly in midfield and arguably won most of the battles. Up front it was pleasing to see five different scorers on the sheet but we were always playing catch-up as Hampstead sneaked away with a game-winning lead.

Our debutantes from last week, Will Stern and TJ Chucoski, played influential roles. Will linked up nicely with Pete and Mark in attack. TJ was lively and a goal threat from midfield. He bagged two excellent goals and created space for others.

At the back we were solid but a couple of concentration lapses gave Hampstead two or three cheap goals which we need to cut out in future games. The Hampstead shooting was accurate and powerful and their team play created space to pepper Colin with bullets from all angles. As he does, Colin took most on the chest (head or throat) but those right in the corners were the difference between the teams today.

Quarter-time scores:
1st Spencer 2 – 5 Hampstead
2nd Spencer 4 – 7 Hampstead
3rd Spencer 6 – 11 Hampstead
4th Spencer 6 – 15 Hampstead

Spencer were;
Colin Byrne, Alan Keeley, Rob Gooch, Craig Simkin, Mike Goodman, Matt Blom, Ant Broadhurst, Will Walker (1 goal), Colin Rutter (1), TJ Chucoski (2), Stephen Greszczyszyn, Glen Gardener, Cliff Hide, Peter Sayia (1), Will Stern, Mark Davies (1)