So, soccer can be a cruel game and it can also have the last laugh as we demonstrated on Saturday. The players went from feeling like they were on the top of the world, to feeling like they had been ripped off by the tooth fairy!

We played a team we were more than capable of beating. Very close contest, matched each other exactly in shots and corners, they had 31 fouls, we had 10, so maybe that was a factor.

As the scorekeeper counted down the final 10 seconds of the first half, we went into headless chicken mode as the opposition mounted one last attack. They took a shot and in my mind the buzzer had clearly sounded before the ball edged over the goal line. The referee did not know if he should give a goal or not, so he consulted his linesman, and yes, you guessed it, he gave the goal!

So, we go in the locker room at half time, question our players as to why they were so flat, ask them why they had not reached the heady heights of Wednesdy night and we really did not receive any convincing answers from them.

We asked them to keep focussed on set plays including corners and we asked our goalkeeper to commit when balls came into our box.

So, in the second half they took a quick long throw into our penalty area, one of our players did not mark his man well enough, they headed the ball goalward and our keeper stood there rooted to the spot!

We then threw everything at them including the kitchen sink, but to no avail. They were awarded a needless penalty in the last couple of minutes and ran out 3-0 winners.

Looking back it amazes me how we conspired against ourselves to lose that game.

So at our next practices we must work on our finishing so that the next time we have 20 shots we convert at least 2-3 of them. We also need to work on our commiunication and commitment when defending. We will also run through all of our set plays again both attacking and defending.

Any suggestions??