Team: Lovett, Cousins, Peters, Grundy, Pickering, Fewtrell, Shipman, Turnbull, Francis, Fisher, Stapleton

Subs: De Baros (Turnbull - 60), Sullivan (Francis - 60), Jessavala (Fewtrell - 65)

Goalscorers: Fisher.

A win against North Greenford would have seen us progress into the quarter final of the league cup. A couple of gilt edged misses late in the game, a stonewall penalty waved away, 2 goalkeeping errors & a deflected shot ensured that this wasn't to be. Although far from perfect it was a much improved performance from the weekend before.

The 1st half was fairly even without many chances being created. It certainly wasn't an end to end encounter but both teams seemed to take it in turn to have slightly the upper hand for periods of the opening 45 minutes. It was Hartley that took the lead midway through the half, a through ball from inside our own half was met by Man of the Match Tom Stapleton who surged forward outpacing the centre half, cutting into the box & when it seemed he was destined to score he opted to slide the ball across the 6 yard box for Phillip Fisher to side foot home, it was a great goal & one that we hoped would set the tone for the rest of the game.

Both teams continued to battle, with North Greenford looking impressive at times with their neat passing & all round movement. Approximately 10 minutes after taking the league the away side equalised & it was a dissapointing goal to concede. A speculative shot from outside the box somehow managed to creep under the body of Tommy Lovett.

The 2nd half was a much brighter affair, Hartley certainly created the greater chances, took the game to North Greenford & arguably deserved to come away with the win but somehow ended up losing.

Approaching the halfway mark of the 2nd period Phillip Fisher was crudely upended in the penalty area & to the astonishment of everyone in attendance the referee refused to point to the spot. The introduction of Andy Sullivan & Pedro de Baros on the hour mark certainly improved the quality of play & it was no coincedence that numerous chances were created during the latter part of the game.

Phillip Fisher somehow managed to shoot straight at the goalie from inside the 6 yard box with the goal at his mercy & was just unable to convert the rebound. A matter of minutes later Phillip found himself in almost an identical position, this time he expertly controlled the ball, wrong footed the goalkeeper & as he went to stroke the ball into the empty net he spectacularly slipped over.

Although Hartley were creating chances there was the small issue of conceding the 2nd goal. Tommy Lovett & his David James style moment of madness saw him run some 30 yards from goal in an attempt to sweep up a through ball & upon realising he wasn't quite going to make it he & his defence desperately retreated to try & prevent a straightforward goal for North Greenford, but ended up in a pile in the back of the net, unsuccessfully stopping the ball from crossing the line.

Again Hartley pushed forward creating further chances. But with the players pushing forward this left us slightly exposed & with North Greenford's last attempt of the game a deflected shot just beating Tommy Lovett at the near post.

With a little more luck/composure in front of goal & if you take away the errors the result would have been so much different. We travel to North Greenford in the league next Saturday in a bid to avenge our defeat & to get get some points on the board.