The Whites this week took on Scotch away in the penultimate game of the season. In the same match earlier this season we'd dominated the general play but could only manage one goal.

Juan had no less than five changes to the starting line-up, with Anthony, Heath and Alex G welcomed back after injury (for Alex, it was his first game of the year), whilst Long was back after one week off and Ayden was promoted to the Glamour from the A's.

In addition to this, our bench consisted of Juan and Joe, both of whom were listed to start in the later game as well.

The notable absentees were Crab, Lev and John Wilson, who have all been integral players in the B's line-ups this year.

Right from the outset, the boys took the ascendancy and as early as the 5th minute, a great run from Long got him to the bye line, where he measured a beautiful cross to Dan Joyce on the far post. Dan made no mistake, to calmly head home his first goal of the year. 1-0 and most of us hadn't gotten warm yet.

From that point on, it was obvious that Scotch's main plan was to play long balls to their 6+ foot forwards in an attempt to beat us in the air. Fortunately though we had Heath in goals, who was wise to this and continually cut off their plays (not to mention annoyed the hell out of Scotch, with his creative delaying tactics).

In general play we were looking good, but only in fits and starts, as we allowed Scotch's physical game to get on top of us a little. Wes was working extremely hard defensively, whilst Long and Anthony were dangerous up front. Indeed it was those two who combined for our 2nd goal at about 30 minutes - As a deep cross from the left by Long (toey!) found Anthony just inside the box. His header was perfectly angled across the keeper and we were up 2-0.

Late in the half, Wez almost made it 3 nil, but his shot curled wide.

At half time, Juan was pretty happy with proceedings, but was still keen for us to win more of the 50-50 balls and also pass to feet.

From the kick-off, we made a 7 or 8 pass play, which really got the boys in the right frame of mind. Much of the 2nd half was uneventful, with our most dangerous passages being long balls from deep - Manny almost got through with a beautifully timed run from a long ball from Joe, but unfortunately his first touch let him down and the keeper was able to smother it. Whilst Anthony had a good chance to either shoot or pass, but he was only able to put the ball over the top.

Scotch interestingly took off two of their most dangerous players in the 2nd half and perhaps their best chance was a solid 'own goal attempt' by Stephen, which was well saved by Heath, lunging to his right.

The last highlight of the game came from Scotch, as they brought a girl on to play the last 20 minutes, she actually played quite well and I'm hoping a few of the Scotch boys were taking notes :)

In the end, a 2-0 win, as the Glamour proved (1) That two-nil is not always the most dangerous score line in football and (2) That we can't score more than two goals... regardless of how many opportunities come our way.

One game to go, and a chance for fifth on the ladder... would be a nice way to end the season.

That's it

SafTop

The whites overcame a crisis of confidence and a severe lack of manpower to drag themselves back into the second half of a game that they really threw away in the first. This was not enough however to give them anything to show for it as Scotch managed to hang on by the skin of their teeth for the win.

The atmosphere pre-game could not have been much more negative had it been part of a Shakspearean tragedy, with the team only just managing to put out 11 players, 4 of whom had played some part in the B's game. To add insult to injury, just as the B's came off, it began to rain, leading to Anthony's observation, "God hates the A's."

The first half seemed to confirm Ant's statement. It was almost as if chaos had been divinely imposed on the Whites midfield. For some reason, the Scotch strikers rather than the Whites midfielders were winning all the second ball contests. As a result of this and a lack of shutting down, they were able to pepper the visitors goal almost at will.

This led to the home side's first goal following a long ball within the first 5 minutes of the game. The ball was gathered on the left, and cut back neatly to the top of the box, where unmarked players lined up to knock it into the net.

The pattern was identified by Dan Aikin, who eloquently and persuasively articulated the delicate nuances of the implications this would have on the outcome of the game. Seriously though, once the ref got him to calm down it became apparent that the game was being played in our half and only in our half. They had a strike pairing that had skill and appeared to understand each other. From my vantage point running the line under an umbrella, I picked up that the "well fed" number 10 was nicknamed Rooney. He kind of looked like the real Wayne Rooney too.

Anyway, again from a nothing long ball not dealt with, Rooney got a shot from the edge of the area which he put into the corner of the net. At 2-0 down, the whites went into their shell and sort of crawled into half time with no real opportunities to show for it and their heads down.

After a "robust and frank exchange of views" (what you get without the regular coach), the Whites came out firing in the second half. Juan and Kev in the left and right wing positions particularly shone. Juan's role was more defensive, making every tackle he had to and distributing the ball to a midfield that was starved in the first 45. Kev got more attacking joy on the right, running at their full backs. He got his reward when the Scotch keeper came out of goal and cleaned him up in the area. Bax put away the resulting penalty and it was game on!

The Whites defence and midfield tightened up significantly with Johny Aspin running tirelessly (you couldn't tell he'd been away) and Rob running the show as usual. As a result, Scotch didn't have any real chances.

As the Whites pushed forward for the unlikely point, Kev got chopped in the box again, this time by one of their defenders. A hush fell over the ground as Bax stepped up to take the penalty. Given the day we were having overall, I suppose it wasn't a surprise when he skied it.

There were other opportunities, a long range effort from Bax was fumbled by the keeper and there was some controversy as to whether it crossed the line, but in our heart of hearts, we kind of knew it wasn't to be our day.

My man of the match: Juan, he gave everything out there, with not too much reward.

MannyTop