Saturday 13th March 2010 - Otterbourne 0 Stoneham 0

Otterbourne seemed to up for the game, Coley was replaced by Kelly returning from injury and in the first fifteen minutes we created and were playing well. A couple of chances came and went one from Liam and Craig combining to get the ball into the ball only for Knight to head just past the keeper and the goal, then from a corner JJ was left un-marked in the box and probably should have headed the cross rather than the difficult volley which just went over.

Stoneham then took the initiative and penned Otters back into their own half, free kicks were given by a over fussy referee, which gained Stoneham further momentum and added pressure on to our over worked defence. Stoneham did manage to get a couple of good deliveries into the box one allowed their striker to get a free header which Jamie positioned himself well to make a confident save. Then another cross was cleared but volleyed back in, it hit the bar with Jamie stranded! Luckily it bounced out to Gleeson who smashed it clear.

With about ten minutes of the half to go we started to play again and Liam caused problems down the left got the ball into the box, Tom turned his man but his pull back to Aaron was just poked clear by Stoneham.

Half time was about upping are game and getting Jakesy into the game.

This had the desired effect and Otters started to push Stoneham back by playing the football we are capable of. Jakesy was seeing more of the ball and was giving their fullback a torrid time. Stoneham came again and worked a couple of chances both of which were snuffed out or handled well by the keeper.

Tom Kerr was substituted for Matt Just to give us fresh legs up the top and it nearly worked in our favour as a ball from Matt put Knighter in to volley just over then Jakesy got down the right and a great cross allowed Aaron a free header back across the keeper and as the old boys on the line went goal the keeper managed to get a hand to it and palm it over!

In a game where both defences were mainly on top and chances we few are far between a 0 – 0 result was probably the best that could be expected.

Now we are on the road for three games to all the top sides so lets see how that pans out over the coming weeks.