With a couple of players missing this was always going to be a hard match, and it was made harder with a sloppy first five minutes where the team weren't talking to each other, weren't energised and seemed happy to let Brentham play with the ball, resulting in 2 quick goals, both from the 6 foot tall centre midfielder just strolling through for one on one's with Dylan, once again in goal, standing no chance. After waking up Pinner played well, passing and moving the ball through midfield and defence well, with Harry and Louis combining well with Hinay in particular. Too often though we had no shape or presence up front, with either many mazy runs from Cfir on the left ending with no through ball or crosses and Robert finding it difficult to find space. Ihsan used his pace well and began to deliver some great crosses from the right, a real feature of his play recently, eventually one of these fell neatly to Ihsan who drilled the ball home well. Just before the half time whistle Brenthams speedy winger got round our defence and squared neatly for Crouchie's relative to secure his hat-trick - 3-1 at half time.
Pinner played far better in the second half, remembering to tackle, track back and defend and with Hinay increasingly getting parity in midfield the game was far more even than the score line. It was unlucky when Brentham capitalised on a defensive error to walk the ball in for their 4th goal and effectively seal the game. To Pinner's credit though they kept battling, with Harry showing great determination, skill and work rate in defence and in getting the ball moving forwards whenever he could. James made an impact in midfield, but again we struggled to find a final ball up front, a combination of poor passing and lack of positional play up front limiting our chances. In the dying seconds, nice work from Hinay, Harry and Ihsan provided Robert with the final goal of the match - 5-2.
A frustrating game at times, with such a slow start effectively costing us the match after just five minutes, but there were signs of better play, good passing and teamwork that started to show in the second half. No doubt Pinner will play worse than this and win in other games. Harry was deservedly man of the match, for his work rate, skill and determination in defence.
Goals:
Man of Match - Harry |
