The chance was there to go 5 points clear with 3 games to go. But we wouldn't want to make life easy for ourselves, would we?
Despite having an unchanged team for the first time in recent memory, Falcons couldn't quite get to the level of recent performances and, with a bit of luck against us, we went down 3-4 to a spirited Soho side.
Soho started well without causing a massive threat and it was slightly against the run of play when a throughball from Duncan found John bursting through the middle and finishing calmly to make it 1-0 on 15 minutes.
There was a case of what might of been when Stevie had a similar chance just five minutes later but on this occasion the goalkeeper saved well. Minutes later, a mis-hit cross from the right sailed right into the top corner, giving Conal no chance and making it 1-1.
Falcons were gifted a penalty on the half hour mark when Chris was tripped in the area. The striker grabbed the ball and struck a confident shot to score a birthday goal and put us back in the lead. However, right on half time, a pure clusterf*ck of a goal saw the ball rebound several times and deflect in off a Soho player to make it 2-2.
The feeling that the squad wasn't quite at the races heightened during a very quiet half time and we were punished for it as Soho scored twice in the opening 15 minutes of the second half. The first was a belter, with their player collecting the ball from a throw-in, spinning and hitting a shot into the top corner to give the visitors the lead for the first time. Then, in another unfortunate moment, Conal got down to make a save only for the ball to bounce back off Pete for an own goal and to make it 2-4.
At this point changes were made as Francesco came on for Stevie and Elliot came on for Jack. It took a little bit of time but the deficit was reduced on 75 minutes, Chris following in for a tap-in after Alex's shot was brilliantly pushed onto the post by the unfortunate goalkeeper.
Boy did we have some chances to get the equaliser. Chris fired over from 12 yards when he had the chance to complete his second hat trick of the season against Soho. Jimmy couldn't quite connect properly from Pete's quick free kick and Duncan again couldn't get his foot through a close-range shot late on. The opposition defence held firm for the final few minutes for a 4-3 win.
This was a bit of a disappointment in terms of not quite finding out recent form. Perhaps that was due after being so good for the past three games. On top of that, the gods weren't quite smiling on us as the ricochets never quite went in our favour on a day when we needed a bit of luck. Fair play to Soho, though, who delivered an energetic performance throughout. Thanks to them also for the picture and video which have been blatantly ripped from their Twitter feed :)
We now face a painfully long wait to finish the season. In two weeks our final home game is against Phoenix before we wait a month to play Stonewall and a further month to finish off against Titans XXL.
Squad: Conal, Duncan, Andrew, Pete, Jimmy, Jack (Elliot 60), Alex, John, Brady, Chris, Stevie (Francesco, 60)
Unused: Ritchie, Matt
Scorers: John, Chris 2