v Epsom
On the face of it, yesterday was a great day for football. Not too cold, no rain and even a bit of sunshine and we were playing a team towards the bottom of the table - so far so good. Then we lost the coin toss. And it all went a bit downhill from there.
I'm being a bit disingenuous here if I’m being honest - to both sides. The game started ok. The pitch seemed a bit heavy which probably didn't do us any favours, but you’ve got to play the conditions. We’ve spoken a bit about the standard of refereeing on these pages before and again there were questionable decisions which seemed to be lacking in consistency, but you’ve got to play the referees.
In the first half an Epsom player was late with a challenge. The referee blew the whistle immediately, and produced a yellow card within 10 seconds or so. In the second half we made a late challenge in a similar position, the referee took another 5 or 6 paces before blowing his whistle, walked away, then walked and looked at the player on the ground, then produced a red card. All of this took maybe 60 seconds. He may have made his mind up immediately - but with a tinfoil hat on it could be easy to see why some on the sidelines would have an argument that this decision may have been made or influenced by players around him on the pitch.
Anyway, back to the actual football. We started ok. Not brilliant but not poorly. I think quite a few times this year we’ve been really guilty of starting a bit lacklustre. But on balance, despite being a goal down I felt that actually it was a better first half than many games so far this season, and knowing we usually turn it on a bit more and raise the levels in the second half I wasn’t too worried. The first goal was a set piece. It’s always disappointing to concede from a corner, and I think most football fans probably believe that their team concedes more from corners than anyone else but I don’t think that’s really the case with us. Having said that, it was noted by those around me during the warmup that Epsom looked a tall side so it was always going to be a threat.
The sending off in the second half undoubtedly changed the game. For a while afterwards we looked brighter so you could tell that the players were working harder but a back pass ended up in our own net. It was hard to see from where I’m standing whether the ball bobbled before it was “air-kicked” by our keeper, and video evidence doesn’t appear conclusive so I’ll give Tom the benefit of the doubt. And do you know what - these things sometimes happen. That’s football.
Epsoms third goal rubbed salt into the wounds (pun intended) and was decent to be fair to them, a run down the left crossed in low towards the penalty spot and finished fairly well.
I think that as a team, we perhaps need to be better at solving problems on the pitch. That’s where I felt we were making progress in that first half. Epsom were putting men behind the ball and defending well. In the first half particularly, James Reed was excellent at opening up the game - winning or trapping the ball and making passes that took opposition players out of the game, or creating an opportunity out wide.
Despite these efforts, these were rarely converted into clear chances - credit to Epsom’s goalkeeper who dealt well with bodies in the box and crosses that where whizzed in but we didn't really have any chances to speak of throughout the game - if you drew a line from each post to the sideline at the halfway line to create a “V” I think we maybe had 1 shot on goal from within that area.
This is a bit of a worry. Our counter attack didn’t seem as effective as it has been in the past but to be fair to Epsom and Ewell they did well to get men behind the ball and get close to our wingers and strikers. We perhaps needed the odd “late run into the box” to give them some problems but I recognise this can be a risky game given how direct Epsom were on the counter.
I thought Blake was lively enough and put a decent shift in, our wingbacks did a good job going forward, Callum Porteous looked good when he came on, but it was one of those days where it felt like things just weren’t clicking.
I have to give a mention to the Epsom Number 10 - Thompson Adeyemi. The tallest man on the pitch who, especially in the second half, seemed to always be in the right place at the right time. And I don’t mean in a “he ran everywhere and made all the tackles” - he just seemed to be great at reading the game and getting into positions as the anchor of the midfield in front of their defence which thwarted a number of our attacks.
It felt like we didn’t have an answer to the questions Epsom were posing defensively. I think on another day we may well have had those answers. You get days like that in football. Where it just all feels a bit “off” from the start. Yesterday was one of those. There’s a bit of looking over the shoulder at the league table at the minute - other teams have plenty of games in hand etc but if we can beat the teams around us it will do wonders for confidence.
Yesterday felt a bit like one step back, but when it happened earlier in the season we did well to respond and move two steps forward afterwards. In fact the game against Sheerwater the week before was a great analogy for that- a really poor first half followed by a much improved performance in the second and 3 goals. Here’s hoping that analogy continues and we respond to this defeat with a good game next Saturday against Redhill.
We had an “off day”. It happens. We’ll bounce back. Keep the faith. Up the Stripes
