Good effort, but nothing to show for it.
Despite the negative scoreline, it was Sassco’s best 90 minute performance after two poor opening games. But, being realistic, it was just another defeat.Most said after the game that we didn’t deserve the defeat, but my opinion is that we did. The better team always wins. They take their chances and we don’t. Saying that; having an aging and balding ginger haired centre forward, who shaves his head out of denial, isn’t really going to get us the number of goals that we want.
We conceded early in the first half when Dave Smith, getting an outing in preparation for Portugal, misjudged a cross and they scored. After this it was quite even. Murton (yes, Murton) had a rocket of a shot saved from an angle. Macca skied an easy chance. The aforementioned Muers scuffed to opportunities. By this time, Dixon playing as centre half was injured and Tim came on to replace him. I can’t complain about the effort. The centre half pairing of McConville and Gillespie were excellent. Even poor Simma at left back was strong. Campbell was on the right.
Second half saw Langan wanting to come off after another ineffective performance on the wing and in attack. Although he did complain about the long balls instead of football to feet. The chances died down in the second half, but as the game wore on, we got an equaliser. A speculative shot from Muers caught the ‘keeper stranded and we were back in it. But, as always, squandered chances cost us. In the last five minutes, Houghton scored a goal through a ruck of players and it was 2-1. We seemed to run out of steam and moments later, a long range shot settled the score at 3-1.
Good performance, but lack of finishing has cost us again.
Despite the major loss of players, we had a good full turn out, with Murton, Wayne Ramsay, Greenwell and Dave Smith all being available. From a management point of view, the team is quite easy to organise now. Harper turned up, but late, so he didn’t really have an input in the starting team talk. I’m looking for a full-time coach now. Someone who would do the team talks and line up. My choice of candidates would be Mulvaney, Langan or Greenwell.
