After a lengthy break due to weather and Christmas Oatlands were back in action on Saturday and hoping to kick on from where we left off prior to Christmas. This week’s opposition were Cobham United, a team we convincingly knocked out of the League Cup in early December.

Going into the game there were no real injury concerns, but we were forced to make some changes to the line up from our last encounter. Out from the starting 11 were Ross, Tom L and Ryan and in their places were Tom P, Pod and Chris.

The team; Will, Sonny, Bayno, Moo, Ryan, Pod, Pete, Chris, Joe, Jiz and Jay. On the bench; Ross, Simon and Sean.

Cobham got the game underway and definitely started better putting us under some early pressure, much of which resulted from the high work rate of their main striker. With us on the back foot it wasn’t long before they forced an early free kick from a dangerous position after Baynezy was forced to bring one of their players down on the edge of the box. Although nothing came of the free kick, Bayne did pick up a booking and would have to be a bit more selective in his challenges for the next 87 minutes.

10 minutes in and the game seemed to have developed into a pattern. We would play the ball around quite attractively in our own half before launching it forward from around the halfway line. The long ball would usually cause us to lose possession to Cobham because our strikers aren’t really suited to that style. Cobham cut out the passing bit at the back and launched it up the pitch to their own striker, who seemed to be perfectly suited to that type of play and we would all watch and wait in the hope that one of our defenders would win the ball back.

About 15 minutes in Cobham’s persistence got the reward it deserved when one of their strikers broke clean through, Will narrowed the angle and the striker shot just wide. But the momentum of both players meant there was a collision between striker and keeper. We thought nothing of it, but the referee immediately pointed to the penalty puddle. We were furious, particularly as the referee had overlooked an earlier incident in which Will won the ball, but was caught very late by the striker. Despite the puddle being where the penalty spot should be, the Cobham player dispatched it well to Will’s left. 1-0 Cobham.

Our response to going 1-0 down wasn’t exactly breath taking. In fact we just carried on playing how we had before, but with Joe putting in the occasional good cross. Watching from the sideline, our defence seemed to be increasing isolated and very often as the ball went down field to their persistent striker, the Cobham midfield seemed be busting a gut to get up and support whereas we seemed reasonably happy to trust our back four to deal with it.

As the half progressed our frustration was becoming apparent and it wasn’t long before another OFC player was in the book, this time for arguing with the referee. From an attacking perspective, we didn’t seem to be able to muster up much in the way of chances. We had a few pot shots which were fairly straightforward for the keeper to deal with, but generally things were broken up by Cobham before any serious danger arose.

Prior to half time, we did create a golden opportunity as some persistence down the left resulted in a superb ball across the box. Sadly Jamie skied it from about 3 yards.

Going into half time Cobham were the better side. They clearly wanted it more than us, appeared to be fitter than us and were good value for their lead. On our side, we huffed and puffed every time the pass wasn’t perfect and we seemed to lack the motivation to fight in every part of the pitch.

At half time Phil did his best to rouse the troops, by pointing out the good, the bad and the ugly and it seemed that we were lifted by his words.

The second half started with OFC showing a bit more mettle and desire across the pitch, but the frustration soon set in again as we failed to break down Cobham’s defence early on and it wasn’t long before we were looking to the referee as a source of blame for our performance.

With us committing more and more forward in our attacks it looked increasingly likely that Cobham would create a chance of their own and catch us short at the back. But defensively we continued to look fairly solid with Sonny and Moo regularly winning the ball and Tom and Bayne generally being available out wide to take it off them and start another attack.

15 minutes in and it was all change for Oatlands. Butler, Jiz both came off and Simon and Sean came on to fill their spots in midfield and attack.

Oatlands then suffered another setback on about the 65 minute mark. An unfortunate defensive error resulted in the busy Cobham striker getting the ball in a dangerous area. We seemed to have been caught a bit flat footed and reacted too slowly by which time the Cobham striker had burst into the box with just Will to beat. Despite the tight angle, the Cobham striker took the chance early and drilled it into the far corner. 2-0 Cobham.

In response to the goal we decided to change formation and go to a back 3. To facilitate this change in approach we took off Joe and put on Ross. The change in formation did little to improve our performance, particularly as a lack of match fitness was now beginning to set in.

As the game progressed it was becoming more and more obvious that we weren’t going to score and that this probably wasn’t going to be our day. Despite not being particularly inventive in our approach we were creating a couple of chances, but probably because we were so stunned to have actually created a chance, our finishing was off the mark. We also hit the post when one of our players cleverly disguised a shot to make it look like a cross.

It was curtains for OFC with about 15 minutes on the clock. Carnage in the Cobham penalty area resulted in the ball popping up and looking as though it was destined to loop the keeper and drop in under the crossbar. With the ball looping towards the goal there was a race between keeper, defender and Tom Pryce to get to the ball and either help it over the line or clear the danger. The keeper won the race, tipped it over and a pile of bodies fell into the back of the net. I am not sure what happened next, but seconds later Tom had been given his marching orders for arguing with the referee.

Our frustration about not getting the important decisions was now beginning to boil over and the game was now becoming a stop-start affair which was halted every time there was physical contact between the two sets of players and inevitably the cards started coming out again when we argued about free kicks we had given away and then argued with the ref for giving free kicks to us when we desperately needed the ref to let it go and give us the advantage.

We created our best chance of the game with 5 minutes to go. We got a free kick just outside the box, but instead of shooting we knocked it in short to Pod and he set Chris free. Despite it being a superb chance, those pesky Cobham defenders were on him like a flash to snuff out the danger.

After the final whistle, we had another player sent off, again for arguing with the referee.

Overall it was dreadful stuff from us and Cobham were easily the better team. The main difference between the teams seemed to be desire to win the game. Obviously we wanted to win the game, but Cobham were prepared to work harder for it.

We need to pick ourselves up from this defeat and make sure that next time out we work harder, have a better attitude and play better. From the side it was such a mess to watch, that at times it was difficult to tell who was playing in what position. The game will also undoubtedly have repercussions as we had 2 players sent off.

Saturday sees OFC away to Elstead, this will probably be an extremely tough encounter and another defeat will be a severe dent in any promotion hopes we have.