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MATCH REPORT
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Riverside Aquarius 4 vs. 1 Sumners Athletic
Sumners somehow contrive to loose....
It may seem completely ridiculous, having lost 4-1, to say that Sumners deserved to win but that was precisely the case as Sumners were defeated by Riverside Aquarius. Sumners were still depleted with Miles Leighton, Matt Whittle, David Bernie and Grant ‘I’ve got a bad tooth’ Clements all missing through injury and a number of other players unavailable. SAFC however had a good record against Riverside having won on this pitch in the past two seasons and scoring four goals in each of those games so went into the game with confidence. That confidence seemed to be justified as Sumners enjoyed total domination for the opening ten minutes. Within 60 seconds of the kick-off Dave Bonds was put through one-on-one with the ‘keeper but his effort was straight at the ‘keeper. Andy Waddington then had a similar chance a minute later when he was put in down the left and shot at the ‘keeper. Within two minutes, Bonds had another chance when he again found space with just the ‘keeper to beat but he failed to make enough of a connection with the ball and the ‘keeper gathered it. At this point, Riverside had barely been in the SAFC half and the Sumners midfielders and forwards were enjoying almost all the possession. There was time for Waddington to again go through on goal before the first Riverside attack but his near post shot was pushed away. Riverside did then come forward and Scott Aitken cleared the ball out for a corner. The resulting set piece was floated in and the Riverside captain was inexplicably not tracked by his marker and he rose unchallenged to head in despite the best efforts of Kevin Coupland on the line. Sumners were shell-shocked – Riverside had had one attack and scored a ridiculously easy goal. Sumners needed to react and again pushed forward looking to immediately equalise. Riverside then cleared the ball down into the Sumners half and a second corner was conceded. This one was fired in a waist height to the near post where a Riverside player got the slightest of touches and flicked it past Scott Coupland to another Riverside player who, yet again, was completely unmarked to scramble the ball home past Dom Green who was making his first appearance in goal for Sumners. Sumners should have been four up but found themselves 2 two down. Things were, however, only going to get worse. Andy Sanderson was put through on the ‘keeper down the right for the fifth one-on-one of the match but his shot across the ‘keeper was turned away for a corner. The corner was cleared and Riverside broke. A cross-field pass was played which Dave Collins was unable to intercept and the Riverside player ran through and slipped the ball under Green to make it 3-0 inside the first 25 minutes – a bizarre score-line. Sumners looked completely shocked and the game went quiet for the next 10 minutes or so except for Green being called upon to make a good save with his foot after the Riverside player had got in behind the SAFC backline. As half-time approached, Sumners again pushed forwards and Waddington whipped in two crosses from the left that were gathered by the ‘keeper. A third cross found Bonds at the near post but his effort from 8 yards went wide of the post. Liam Crouch then swung a corner in to the near post that the defender decided to leave only for the ball to come back off the post – it really was one of those days. The score stayed 3-0 at half-time.
You didn’t need to be Einstein to work out where things had gone wrong. Awful finishing and awful defending – simple as that. Despite the deficit, Sumners could still take heart from the host of chances they had created and the fact that we really should have been the ones 3-0 up rather than 3-0 down. The message was to attack Riverside right from the start of the second half and hopefully get back into the match.
Sumners did start the second half with renewed enthusiasm and intent. Within a few minutes, Waddington had again got in down the left but the ‘keeper stood up well to deny him yet again. Andy Rigglesworth was going past players for fun but could not find the opening to get a goal back. Finally, Sumners did get a deserved goal when a corner was only half cleared and Bonds did brilliantly to work some space and cross for Waddington who attacked the near post a flicked the ball across the ‘keeper in at the far post. 3-1 and game on. SAFC the continued to attack almost relentlessly for the next 20 minutes. Several corners and free kicks came to nothing, Liam Crouch fired a shot just wide and Kevin Coupland tested the ‘keeper with a powerful twenty-yard effort which was well-held. Sumners still found space in around the 18 yard box but the Riverside ‘keeper was having a great game and managed to keep everything out. There was not really much going on down the other end aside from the odd counter attack and Green was only called on to make one save of any note. Despite all the pressure, Sumners could not break through again and the game was finally ended when Rigglesworth was dispossessed on the edge of the box after Sumners had cleared a corner and the Riverside player smashed into the net to make it 4-1. Sumners still pushed forward again but it was all too late now and there were no further goals.
It was a bitterly disappointing result. Sumners must have had somewhere between 15 – 20 attempts and at least 10 good chances but poor finishing and poor defending in the first half had cost them the chance of taking three points from this match.
Jeff Coupland:
“There is not much that can be said. We just had one of those days where we could not score despite our best efforts. Our defending in the first half on set pieces cost us two goals and we just couldn’t get back into it despite the chances. We really have been architects of our downfall. In any other match, I’m sure we would have defended better and scored 5 or 6 goals but today was just not our day. We can take positives from the amount of chances created though and hopefully we can use that as a platform for next week.”
Sumners Athletic:
1. Dom Green
2. Dave Collins (sub – Mike Ross)
3. Scott Aitken
4. Liam Crouch
5. Marc Etherington
6. Scott Coupland
7. Andy Waddington
8. Andy Sanderson (sub – Joe Hughes)
9. Dave Bonds
10. Andy Rigglesworth
11. Kevin Coupland
Sub not used: Jeff Coupland
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