Right off the bat I think it bears saying that the team has improved a lot since we started the season before Christmas. If it wasn’t for the really good level of fitness and non stop work that everyone put in, then this Leatherhead side would have walked all over us (or just run past us…). That being said, this was not our finest match, probably our worst since Christmas. Despite all our efforts and a great big pile of short corners we just couldn’t hit the back board.
From the start of the match both sides were trying to play a high tempo game and the first half in particular was as much about trying to make space and out run the opposition as anything else. We had a couple of shots at goal but as was the theme in this game, nothing got past their keeper and Adam unfortunately had to take a break on the sidelines early on after he tried to check the oppo keeper. In all honesty, by then end of the first half I’d been running around so much that I couldn’t tell you what was happening from one moment to the next as they all blended together. Probably because Leatherhead had 6 subs and were swapping off every 7 or 8 minutes.
The second half was more interesting, and we even looked dangerous once or twice. Thanks to some really great defending – in particular by M.O.M. Dave E – we were able to get some good breakaway plays and take the ball all the way to the Leatherhead D. Once there we were pretty good at keeping the pressure on thanks to some good clean up play by the midfield who were able to pick up almost all the lose balls and send them straight back into the D. It was in the D that we struggled the most however, and despite something like 10 short corners and a bunch more shots on target we weren’t able to score.
Overall a disappointing result, especially since it gives Cheam an extra 2 points on us. Thanks to Leatherhead for a hard fought game, even if we were playing their whole club. Well done to our defenders and Tucky in goal too for stopping some dangerous plays. See everyone next weekend.