Old Latymer 3rd XI v OC 3rd XI

L.O.B Cup first round

Result: 2-4 (AET)

That was a classic cup tie. Hampered by a heavy pitch, we didn't always play our best football on Saturday and that's the second week running we've surrendered a 2 goal lead. Having said that, we could have easily lost that game and showed great grit and determination to come through it in extra time. Again we started brilliantly, which we've done all season, taking an early 2 goal lead through Frenchy and George. Without video evidence this week, it's hard to see where we went wrong at the back, conceding 2 quick goals before half time - let's put it down to a mixture of pinball and heavy turf but either way, we must try and tighten things up at the back and make sure we don't give up any more convincing leads. We battled through a scrappy second half and had a few chances to finish them off but once extra time started, I was really impressed with how we played. We didn't panic, got the ball down and scored two excellent goals, the first through a bullet Mark Jackson header and the second a wonderful looping James Moss header. I thought everyone played well given the difficult conditions but the team performance was epitomized by this week's M.O.M James Moss - he tirelessly hounded their back four all afternoon, made some great runs, wasn't caught offside once, looked like he still had gas to burn after 120 minutes of football and capped it all off with a nicely taken goal. But well done to everyone involved. It was great to have JT and Jacko back. With all four goals coming from set pieces, Jacko's delivery was straight back to its best and it's a wonderful blessing to have when goals were always going to be difficult to come by in open play on a pitch like that.