Away vs Athenlay 14Jan24

Match report by Ciaran Larkin.

Today we played a cup quarter final against another side who are in the league above us. As it is a cup quarter final anything can happen (as it did in the previous round when we beat Elmstead) - and as we lost last time out against Dulwich White, we really needed to make sure we at least put in a better performance.
The game started and Athenlay had a lot of the ball; they were getting into good positions but weren’t really testing our back line. We had the same but we weren’t testing their keeper either. After 30-minutes, the deadlock was broken as they broke down our right, crossed and found the back of the net for 1-0. 5-minutes later, they doubled their lead with a play very similar to the first goal, breaking down our right and cutting the ball back to double their lead. We felt that we still could get something out of the game, but they got their 3rd before half time after a free kick was unfortunately deflected in by one of our defenders and it deceived Romeo. We went into half time 3-0 down and were hoping for a bit of luck to bring us back into the game as we know that we can play some good football.
The second half started and we wanted to at least make sure the game was competitive. However, Athenlay got a quick penalty as the ref pulled the game back for a foul in the box after they had a shot which went wide. The penalty was converted for 4-0 lead which took most of our early momentum away. They scored a 5th soon after from a cross into the box and a header which found the far corner for a 5-0 lead, and their 6th came from a misplaced pass from Romeo which found their central midfielder who from about 40 yards out put the ball calmly into the back of the net for 6-0. We had a period of the game where we were getting clear 1-on-1 chances but we just couldn’t seem to find the back of the net. The game fizzled out, the full time whistle went and our cup run was over.
Well done to Harry for a really strong MoM performance against some quick wingers. We now had a week off and needed to find our form back so that we can continue competing in the league.