Match Reports
01/04/06
Canterbury 4a 6-3 Men's 3rd XI
The thrilling 3s league campaign ends with a whimper rather than a roar.
Needing to win or draw to hold on to fourth spot the 3s entertained a strong fifth placed Canterbury 4A.
As seems to be customary the 3s started the brighter of the two teams and a great move resulted in Graham Pruce finishing smartly to give Brighton the lead. This was the highlight of a flaccid first half performance that saw Canterbury quickly go from a canter to a gallop and storm into a 4-1 lead by the break. Writing anymore about the first half would just be too
depressing.
The Skipper gave all and sundry and right royal rollicking at half time and united with Begs’ well chosen words of wisdom a re-invigorated team re-took the pitch to fight for some pride, the season starts here!
The second half performance was a massive improvement and 2 goals from the goal machine Begs reduced the deficit (that’s five in two games). One a trademark short corner strike and the other one after skipper Dan had powered to the by-line and passed across the keeper to Begs waiting in the wings. Unfortunately this followed the conceding of an unlucky penalty flick, which killed off any hope of a dramatic comeback. If a positive can be drawn from the defeat drawing the second half 2-2 should be seen as a great morale booster for the team before next weeks big match.
This defeat left the 3s in disappointing mid-table mediocrity, a position feared earlier on the in season. While no one in the team is into the blame game some poor defensive performances at crucial times must be seen as the primary cause for this sorry state of affairs. Something to work on over the summer (summer league guys!).
The season isn’t over for the 3s though and the Sussex cup semi-final against EG 3s at the weekend is an opportunity to get something to cheer about at the dinner dance and a big day out on cup final day perhaps…
A special mention should also be made to the hardcore of 3s that drowned their sorrows on the streets of Brighton on Saturday night. I raise a glass to you and some wonderful dancing moves.
DB