2s vs Old Finchleians – 17.10.15

Merton Res 1 Old Finchleians Res 1  (HT 0-0)

An interesting game with a lot of good passing football with the goals coming from two really good strikes. The first half finished goalless with both sides creating opportunities and both keepers being kept busy. The second half continued in that fashion but with about twenty minutes to go OFs failed to clear a corner other than to Darcy 25 yards out who scored with a great strike. There were times when we looked like scoring the important second goal but were prevented twice by unpunished cynical fouls and finally by their keeper felling our player through on goal. The red card he received about five mins from time seemed to galvanise OFs into a late rally. With Merton under the cosh there was some naïve defending and we ultimately conceded a free kick in a bad position. So with only seconds remaining their striker buried the equaliser with a great strike. In fairness a draw was probably a fair result. Old Fs had some good players out there and played some good attractive passing football. They were very vocal and I felt intimidated the referee. Brian West is a ref who likes to let things roll which can be good but this game needed a firmer hand.  It was good to see Rich Moore back in midfield after his bad injury last season.  It would have been a good three points but one is OK. Our defence did well to limit their lively forwards and Marc Wilson and Paul Pearce were outstanding. We need to kick on from this and try and get some consistency and regularity in availability.