The journey there and back was not too bad (apart from some lunatic loosening 3 of my wheel nuts, as the garage told me this morning!!!), the hospitality as ever was excellent. Here endeth the good news.

Having held tonight's opponents at home last Wednesday to a deserved draw we approached the game with a measure of confidence in the way they would play and in our ability to get something from the game. Hmmmm!!

As opposed to playing the long game as they had on the first fixture Uxbridge proceeded to move the ball quickly, accurately and using 3rd man runs as if they were an Olympic Sport they effectively run us ragged.

The difference in technique, fitness, ability and ambition (on and off the pitch) was cruelly exposed. A poor decision by the linesman in the 3rd minute cost us the opener but we then had to work really hard just to standstill. Score 1-0.

For 28 minutes we kept them at bay with some decent keeping and with some measure of luck before conceding a poor second. Score 2-0.

Ollie Ruttle then had our only worthwhile attempt on goal which produced a good save from their keeper. Our attempts to take the sting out of the game were no more successful and even the few older more experienced players were swept along on the tide.
A third goal was conceded on 44 mins, score 3-0, then threatened to turn a defeat into a rout but an admittance by all and sundry of an unacceptable first half and a couple of substitutions and letting in a poor 4th within 6 mins when a chasm appeared mysteriously in our back 4 we at least started to compete, score 4-0.

We gave debuts to 2 more of our U 18 team and if there is a small bonus from this game it is that these younger players will hopefully take on the harsh lessons learnt.

I must place on the paper my thanks not only to the players who made the journey but also those that helped with lifts (and if they had any criticisms, they were good enough not to voice them) and Richard Smith and Harry Dear who helped with running the team - "Things can only get better"
Team: L. Smith. J. Byerley (A. Wilkinson), G. Tomlin, P. Bagatti, G. Terblanche. R. McMahon (W. Foley), J. Shaw (T. Paul), R. Hazel. J. Naylor, O. Ruttle (R. Rekri), T. Shaw.

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