This Sunday we were the visitors to Khalsa at the Newbold Common fields in Leamington. Refreshingly the pitches were cut, white lines looking sharp and a surface unlike I have ever seen before at this venue. So all to play for and conditions that should suit our normal passing game.
Khalsa are a different proposition altogether this season and good to see Pal, Khalsa’s manager with a group of lads that will test every team in the league this season.
In a 1st half dominated by WWFC we take a 2 nil lead through goals from Rowan and Joel, only to be pegged back just before half time after the boys failed to carry out one of the basic rules in football – play to the refs whistle. After the ball had clearly crossed the touch line (according to most) the boys stopped playing and the only one who didn’t was the Khalsa striker who turned back into the pitch and slotted home coolly. With both linesman and referee unsighted the goal stood and a lesson to be learned for the future. Fortunately we went straight down the other end and were incredibly lucky to regain our 2 goal advantage when a deep cross into the box was headed into his own net by the luckless Khalsa defender. HT 3-1
A quick start to the 2nd half saw us take a 4-1 lead with Joel’s 2nd clinical finish of the game and from here on we should have seen the game out comfortably. However Khalsa were not on the same page and showed what a hugely improved team they are by fighting their way back into the game and probably controlling a large part of the final 1/3 of the game. They created several chances of their own and scored arguably the best goal of the game to bring the score back to 4-2.
The game eventually finished 4-2 which was overall a fair reflection of the game, however had we have been more clinical in the 1st half the game would have been out of site by half time. Credit must go to Khalsa who were determined to push us all the way and that they did amicably.
Lots of things to work on from a performance perspective, but another 3 points in the bag and that takes us to 7 games played and maximum points to date.