Tue 4th Feb 2020
Shield
TAFC Development team 1-0 Thatcham Town Development
TAFC goals: Casey O'Gorman
Tring Ath.Res (0)1 Thatcham Town (0)0
These were our first opponents in a group of five with Oxford City,Dunstable Town & AFC Hayes & Yeading. We play each other once with the winners going into a semi final.
Having got the massive bonus of a home draw saving a journey of 130 miles on a Tuesday we put on a performance which will not live long in the memory and in truth our opponents possibly deserved a draw.
Playing down the slope we managed to make a miss a number of chances and failed to take advantage of a series of corners and in particular long throws from Tom Withers.
The back 4 was again marshalled well by Matt Stacey and despite under par performances from a few we looked relatively comfortable at half time.
Within 3 mins we took the lead when some neat interplay between Casey O'Gorman and Clem Asante resulted in the former having a shot trickle over the line.
This should have been the start of our taking advantage of our opponents pushing forward for an equaliser instead we became messy and disjointed. Playing not holding their positions and when Matt Stacey went off with a slight hamstring strain worrying gaps appeared at the back and eventually only a tight offside from one long ball over where the centre halves should have prevented an equaliser.
Our opponents played the pitch and the conditions and played forward quickly .
We created relatively few chances but poor game ,good result. Perhaps the rustiness of a few is showing.
Phew!!!
Bit harsh from the manager as some nice football played at times.