Falcons slipped up in a big way on Sunday, losing 3-1 at home to bottom of the table London Titans Two Brewers.
There were no excuses. A full-strength team with quality on the bench was available but pretty much every area of our game was off.
The opposition did their job well. They were mostly on the defensive but limited Falcons to few opportunities early on. Then, from our own corner, they pounced, taking advantage of some unusually poor marking to score on the counter attack with pretty much their only chance of the half.
There were two glorious chances from set pieces to get back on level terms before the break but a lack of attack at the far post saw the half-time scoreline remain at 0-1.
Falcons missed a great chance to equalise early on in the second half. Good work from Stevie on the left saw the ball crossed to Duncan at the far post but he couldn’t connect as he would wish and the goalkeeper saved comfortably. As the game wore on an extra body was pushed up front to try and make the breakthrough. Elliot and Alex both had shots saved. At the same time, Titans became more threatening on the counter attack and missed two good chances to extend their lead.
Then, with ten minutes to go, we finally scored. Alex crossed a freekick from the left and Paddy’s glancing header made it 1-1.
A push on to victory perhaps? Sadly, not for us. Titans took advantage of two freekicks late on to win the game. The first was diverted in for an own goal and then a ball from the left was whipped in, evaded everyone and found the corner of the net to make it 3-1.
There was general frustration from everyone that we hadn’t performed close to our best in this contest. Our passing was way off, the challenges and physicality weren’t there and there was far too much negativity all round.
The good news is we now have a couple of weeks off to re-group and a defeat for Soho also means we retain our lead at the top of the table, albeit reduced to two points after a Romans Gladiators win.
Many thanks to Dean who very kindly stepped in to referee in a week where two different referees cancelled on us.
Our next game is on February 19th when we visit East End Phoenix.
Squad: Conal, Kieran (Ritchie 55), Pete, Andrew, Jack, Brady, John (Duncan 40), Alex, Francesco (Paddy 25), Olu (Stevie 25), Elliot
Scorer: Paddy (80)