5s vs South Bank Cuzco – 22.10.16

For those of you who regularly visit the flying fives’ reports to read about how much we’ve won by in the following week, look away now.
It had been 2 weeks since we had played as Polytechnic 9s unhelpfully called off last week. We played today like we had taken the two weeks off and gone to Ibiza, pulling an all-nighter before finally returning back to our home of Merton with puke down our shirt, blinded by the sunlight and still trying to find our friend named “Doug”. It was a performance that was reminiscent of last year, and one that we must be focused on reversing in the next game.
Their first goal saw the oppo player run onto a bouncing ball from just outside the 18 yard box. With Lenners committed, the player lobbed him from the left hand side to make it 1-0 after approximately 25 – 30 mins. Shortly after, they capitalised on a bit of luck. An attempted through ball hit our player and rebounded kindly to their player, who hit a lovely strike from 25 yards out that he won’t do again anytime soon. The third was also a happy blend of catastrophic & unlucky. A slide tackle to block the cross rebounded off our defender, hit their player and fell kindly in the box. A good cross ended up at the feet of their striker, who scuffed what should have been an easy tap in. As the ball painfully slowly approached the line, Steve Birchall got to the ball and went to clear. Unfortunately, the clearance hit Lenners on the back of the head and went in for Lenners’s second own goal of the season. Despite the luck attributed to goals 2 and 3, they deserved the 3-0 lead at half time.
The second half started a little better, with Merton calving out our first half chances of the day. The game was marred, however, by an incredibly unfortunate, serious looking injury afflicted to Tom who was having a very good game at an unfamiliar left back position at the time. We all wish him a speedy recovery, and he will be missed whilst away. The game petered out without much incident after, with both teams creating half chances, however the game ended 3 – 0.
In writing this report, I have realised how refreshing it is to be bitterly disappointed by a defeat where last season it almost felt like an expectation. We have performed incredibly well as a team throughout this season and next week provides us as a shot at retribution against a Poly 8s side that will prove to be tough opposition.