Moston Brook AFC

Gatley ( 2 - 1 ) Moston Brook

By Paul Smith, on 26-01-2008 01:00

Favoured : 8

Published in : 2nd XI Match Reports, 2nd XI Match Reports

The seconds saw their unbeaten start to the season end on Saturday after a disappointing second half performance. We went into the game with a bare eleven after three late withdrawals, but we certainly had the better of the first half. On a difficult uneven pitch, Moston were in the ascendancy for most of the first half but we seemed to lack the killer final pass and didn't create that many clear cut chances. Norman, probably should have scored from a fine Terris cross but he put his header wide. Terris did hit the bar with a long range effort but the Gatley goalkeeper was largely untested in the half. Gatley did have a couple of long range efforts but both were well saved by Holcroft. Moston did take the lead just before half-time, with McElvaney flicking on Norman's long throw to Terris who glanced the ball into the net with his head.

With the wind now against us, it was going to be a much more testing second half. Gatley did have much more of the game in the second half, but for the most part, Moston were able to keep our opponents at bay. The game changed however, in a five minute period of madness which would ultimately cost us the game and our unbeaten record. Gatley equalising after their forward got in down out left hand channel and finished well, in off the post. Soon after, they got a second after a poor cleared free-kick was punished by a fine right foot strike by the Gatley left winger.

Our first defeat of the season and with it, one of our worst performances. Despite dominating the first half we didn't really turn the pressure into shots on goal and rarely tested the Gatley goalkeeper. We really should have finished the game off in the first half while on top and ultimately paid the price for this. That said we didn't defend as well as we can and were a little bit disorganised at times in the second half. Credit to Gatley though, as they have shown a lot of improvement since we beat them 6-0 earlier in the season and kept going right to the final whistle.

Last update : 26-01-2008 01:00