Sparticans 2 - 6 Teddington Oaks (A)
By Simon Fitch
Scorer: Grant, K (2)
We congregated early at Broom Road for the 10.00 start against perennial rivals the Oaks from Teddington. Early starts don’t seem to suit the team, and unfortunately this proved to be the case on Saturday, where we were comprehensively second best over the 70 minutes.
During the first period, though, the opposite was the case and we had a number of chances, and eventually converted one to go 1-0 up. Then, however, Teddington took the game to us and scored four goals from four very good shots. We were rather shell shocked but regrouped and scored a second just before the break to turn around only two goals down.
In the second half, we played poorly, Teddington scored another two and we probably wanted the strong umpires provided by the opposition (thanks) to blow the final whistle sooner than they did. Teddington were better than us and deserved the victory. Simply, nothing went right. It speaks volumes around overall team spirit though, that we did debrief at some length over lunch of Mac, Cheese and Pulled Pork – an interesting culinary combination.
Moment of The Match was awarded to Fitchy for his pre-match chat around the opposition being disadvantaged by having a lot of substitutes, and more, all of which proved to be absolute nonsense. On a generally dark day for us, Kieran deservedly took home Spartican of The Day for being our brightest spot.
We play at home, and in the afternoon, next week and hope that helps us get things back on song. Days like Saturday happen, but thankfully not often.