Moston Brook AFC

The seconds lost their 100% record at Newton on Saturday in a disappointing 1-1 draw. In a decent first half, where both sides tried to play some good football, chances were minimal, although Moston probably just shaded it. Chances did fall for Moston though  , firstly to Terris, who headed over at the back post and Monyei hit the post. Moston did manage to get their noses in front before half-time, Luke Worsley picking out the top corner with an unstoppable free-kick. Some of our players were becoming increasingly frustrated, with the lack of refereeing decisions going our way and began to take it out on the referee. Firstly Edge and then Dale Lambert getting booked. 

Our frustration continued to boil over into the second half and at times some players became more interested in berating the referee than playing football. On the plus side we were still creating some good chances with Terris again missing two good chances, Fitxpatrick flashed a shot wide after a fine run and Dale Lambert shot straight at the keeper after a fine move between himself, McElvaney and Edge. The game changed on a poor refereering decision which saw Edge unluckily given a straight red card for supposed ‘violent conduct' The fact that it was actually the Newton player who raised his hands seemed to be lost on the referee. What made it even more frustrating was within five minutes, the Newton player stayed on the pitch after what was by far the worst tackle of the game, hacking down McElvaney from behind, in a tackle that could have done some serious damage and also the kind of tackle I thought referees were supposed to be clamping down on We were to regret these decisions as Newton equalised with around 10 minutes to go, scrambling in from a corner, although they were very lucky to see the goal given after their forward nearly decapitated Billy Humphries from the chest upwards. What is even more frustrating was that the referee said afterwards, ‘he would have put money on it being a foul but he wasn't sure'.

To try and give a fair assessment of the game, I do honestly feel we deserved to win the game and created far better chances. I also agreed with many of our grievances with regards the referee, however we are not helping ourselves by constantly giving the referee verbals about decisions. At times, players were more interested in arguing with the referee than playing football and I feel this effected the organisation of the side. This was a game that was there for the taking and we only have ourselves to blame for not taking the three points. If we would have accepted decisions and got on with the game, then I honestly feel we would have got more decisions off the referee and would have beaten Newton comfortably. We now need to get back to winning ways next week and more importantly getting back to playing the good football we had shown in the earlier games.