Match report
Moon JFC 3 - 0 Hawthorne Rangers
by Eddie Bernard
Tell us what you think below...
There wasn't much quality on display today as Hawthorne suffered a setback against an extremely physical Moon side. The ball spent most of its time in the air, most of the chances came from hoofed long balls, and all of the goals were the result of mistakes rather than good play.
The rot set in early as Hawthorne's defence seemed to be in complete disarray for the first 15 minutes. The first goal came after just six minutes when Josh missed a routine clearance, leaving the ball free for a simple tap-in. Minutes later a combination of errors in midfield and defence resulted in a second goal. To give your opponent a 2-0 head start before you've even settled down is unforgiveable.
Fortunately, it didn't continue like that. Hawthorne stopped directing the one-way traffic towards their goal, and managed to get a foothold in the game. They won more of the ball in midfield and sent a few long balls forward, but Charlie and others just couldn't get on the end of them.
The hard part of the game for Hawthorne was that Moon were extremely strong in the challenge, and Hawthorne had little response to it. They were bullied off the ball whenever they got through, and Hawthorne arguably deserved a penalty when a Moon defender barged into Charlie when the ball wasn't in playing distance. Unfortunately it wasn't spotted and the game continued.
The rest of the half was a fairly tedious affair, with Moon getting half chances and wasting them, and Hawthorne struggling to get the ball either through the middle or over the top. You got the sense that the game just needed a little bit of quality, a show of pace to get past the full back, a string of good passes, or a perfectly weighted through ball, but it just wasn't happening.
If it wasn't for a great save by Darren from a fizzing shot going high and to his left, they could have been out of the game at half time. As it was, at just 2-0 down, they were well in with a chance of turning the game around after the break.
From the restart it nearly happened. A quick break on the counter-attack came as a result of some well made passes, and Charlie got to the through ball before the Moon keeper. Unluckily, the finish was just wide of the post. The game could have been completely different had that gone in; it wasn't to be.
Hawthorne certainly showed a little more in the second half, but once more the ball was sent skyward by both sides on a regular basis. Warren and Mikey at centre back dealt with the aerial threat very well, but once they had won the ball back Hawthorne seemed unable to make use of their possession.
Moon wasted a chance after 45 minutes, but Hawthorne were just as guilty at the other end when the Moon keeper made a decent save from a timid effort from a Hawthorne player. Minutes later Hawthorne might have had another chance if the referee hadn't been so eager to blow for offside, as Josh was clean through on goal, but the game had been stopped as two other players were in offside positions but not active. Once more, Hawthorne were left wondering what might have been.
The game fizzled out in the last ten minutes, with opportunities going begging at both ends, but Hawthorne's defence had at least got their act together and had coped admirably with the physical presence. Equally, Darren had made some tremendous stops, showing safe hands on a number of occasions to deny Moon any more goals.
It was a shame, however, that Hawthorne had to concede in the dying seconds of the game. Another defensive error, out of character with the second half performance at the back, led to a Moon player having time and space to weigh up the shot. 3-0.
Hawthorne probably deserved to lose as they gifted all three goals to Moon. But equally, the rest of the side had offered little creative outlet going forward, not carving out enough chances to get back into the game.
Overall it has to be viewed as a missed opportunity from Hawthorne, but against physical sides like Moon they are probably always going to struggle unless the referee stops play for all the fouls. There's always next week...
| Team for the game | |||
| Darren (GK) | |||
| Danny | Josh | Warren | Mark |
| Ray | Mikey | Joe | Adam B |
| Matty F | Charlie | ||
Subs: Jay (10 mins), Adam L (HT)
Man of the Match: Mikey
What do you think? Post your comments below...