FC Deportivo Thurrock 4 – 3 Oaks Athletic

In what can only be described as “a bad day at the office” The Oaks lost to the league’s bottom side, which only goes to show that no victory can be taken for granted in this League.

Perhaps the late kick-off – 11 a.m – was partially to blame given it inevitably meant many of our players had lost the edge that the previous night on the booze usually provides. Unfortunately Milesy didn’t have access to a breathalyser, and therefore had to rely on gut instinct in picking the following 11:

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaaaNNeil (GK)

pppDeano (RB) Rob (CB) Milly (CB) Eye-Ball (LB)

pNathan (RM) Gollum (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Aaron (LM)

ppppaaaaaaaaaaaAl (CF) Sharpy (CF)

subs: Parker, Jimmy, Bill

With no referee assigned the Deportivo manager took charge, and informed us he wouldn’t be giving any penalties – and we thought he was joking! The match couldn’t have started any better for the Oaks, as the infamous Aaron Kempster failed to hold a cross from the right, and Rob – still up from a throw-in – bounced for the easiest of tap-ins.

This early goal proved to be a mixed blessing, as we seemed to go to sleep for the rest of the half. Deportivo’s equaliser exposed unusual frailties from set-pieces which have never before been associated with The Oaks, and in particular reacting to the second ball. You could say it was unfortunate that on three occasions the loose ball in the box fell to a Deportivo player, but you could equally argue that we were guilty of only marking for the first ball, and fell asleep if the ball wasn’t going to be won initially by our man. I definitely learnt this lesson for the first goal as it was my man who slotted home when a free kick from the right was not cleared on the first attempt.

The Oaks could have been 2-1 down soon after when Gollum felled an opposition player inside the box; however, true to his word the temp-ref decided the offence had occurred outside the box and the subsequent free kick didn’t trouble Neil. Unfortunately the scores wouldn’t stay at 1-1 for long, as –despite Neil’s heroics which left a dent in his head and a bigger one in the goal post – a Deportivo player again reacted quickest when the initial goal bound effort from a corner was well saved by Neil.

The next two goals were the only ones of the game not to result from set pieces; firstly Al got the Oaks back on level terms when he collect a pass from Eye-ball, sending the defender the wrong way in the process, and fired a rasping low drive that was too good for Kempster. We were back on level terms for all of a minute as we failed to deal with a ball over the top, and the speedy Deportivo winger was allowed to apply a good finish passed the helpless Neil.
What followed is not worth dwelling on, but needless to say the temp-ref was nothing if not consistent as he awarded the Oaks a free-kick outside the box for a foul on Sharpy that occurred closer to the perimeter of 6 yard box rather than that of the 18 yard box. As it happened we really should have scored from the free kick, but unfortunately on one of the few occasions a rebound did fall to one of our players the shot was put wide.

We did finish the half on level terms thanks to an own goal resulting from yet another set piece, but despite the scores being level we were far from happy with our performance.

With the injured Gollum forced off a re-shuffle was required, with Parker coming on at right back, Deano moving to left back, and Eye-ball moving to the centre of midfield. The Oaks were more competitive in this half, but it seems that we had already lost the match mentally; mistakes started to arrive with alarming regularity and the whole game got a bit scrappy.

We had a couple of good chances to score, but when the sucker punch came mid way through the second half – Deportivo making it 4-3 from another rebound off a set piece – we couldn’t gain any momentum and really failed to put the opposition under any pressure. Despite this Milly came very close to grabbing us a point with the last kick of the game, but unfortunately his perfectly struck volley (you guess it from the second ball following a corner) was fired straight at a Deportivo player – who I bet wishes he hadn’t been in the way.

This was a disappointing result, but one that can be rationalised when you consider that this was only our sixth game of the season, and hopefully the upcoming regular flow of fixtures will help us individually and as a team.

Eye-Ball

Next game: Sun 21st Dec – v Stanford Wanderers @ Home – 10:30 K.O.

Goal Scoring Chart: