This game was lost in transition. In settled play we were finding the route to the back of the Purley net a touch easier than our flags game a few weeks ago. At the back we held up pretty well. The problem was our transition play.

Our ride was was not great. We know Purley have some set plays for their clear and more often than not they resulted in a fast break or a semi-fast break. Either way that means pressure on the defence, the need to think about sliding and the opportunity for a good passing team like Purley to find the open man and a chance on goal.

However saying that, Purley’s shooting was a bit off today with some near misses and good saves from Colin between our sticks. But we let ourselves down with our own clearing ability. Too often we were pressured into a long hopeful pass up-field rather than something a bit more controlled. This was partly down to energy levels as the game wore on but also not enough team organisation.

The few fast break situations we created were not always taken advantage of. Today we scored most of our goals from settled play, working the ball nicely in attack and being patient. The strong purposeful running of Colin Rutter in midfield gave Purley a few things to think about but we were always just a couple of goals behind in the scoreline.

What we needed was a golden period to close the gap and turn the screw. This almost happened in the 4th quarter but Purley have a habit of sneaking goals even when they are not playing at their best.

Spencer were;
Colin Byrne, Matt Blom, Craig Simkin, Alan Keeley, Jesse Churchward, Rob Gooch, Dan Hughes, Colin Rutter (2 goals), Will Walker, Glen Gardener, Arun Anandasegar, Peter Sayia (2), Mark Davies (1), Andrew Mottershead (2)