HARPS...DOM...ROSS...SONNY...FRASER...PETE B...POD...TED...JORDIE,,,JARV...STEVE C (1)...ROB H

Oatlands have been on a bad run as of late, losing their last 2 games heavily and it was hoped that the break from action last week would refresh everyone and bring us back up to speed.

This week we were affected by quite a bit of unavailability, much of which was down to injuries to the likes of Jim, Jack, Gravy and Elliot etc, but none the less we still had a strong squad available.

This week's team: Harps in goal. Sonny, Ross, Fraser and Dom at the back. Pete, Jordy, Pod and Ted in midfield and Jarv and Stevie C up front. Rob and Andrew were on the bench.

The game got underway and the opening five minutes of the match suggested that there were 2 evenly matched teams on the pitch. Both teams looked up for it and the game was mainly played in the midfield where it was a fairly intense battle.

For the first quarter of the match the University probably edged it and their passing, movement and desire to win the ball pushed us slightly on to the back foot. But across the back we looked solid. Ross and Sonny in the centre back positions had to deal with a number of very long clearances from the UniS keeper and more often than not they won the ball well and gave themselves the opportunity to bring the ball out of defence. The Uni had some quick players out wide who were keen to join up their attacks but again at the back, Dom and Fraser did well, allowing them very little time on the ball and they were often helped out by Sonny who provided good cover from the centre back role.

UniS may have enjoyed a lot of the possession, but for the opening 20 minutes they had very little success in front goal and opportunities they did create were well stopped by Chris Harper.

After a solid opening 20 minutes of the game Oatlands began to lose their way. Up to that point we had offered very little going forward or in an attacking capacity. Jordy and Pete Butler had made a few breaks down the flanks but we struggled to get targets into the box for them to aim for and we had yet to create a serious opportunity to score.

Increasingly after 20 minutes we found the ball coming back at us from Harps clearances from goal and both our central midfield and forwards struggled to compete aerially with UniS and the result was increased pressure on our back line who up until this point had looked solid. As we began to feel the pressure, we began to make a number both forced and unforced mistakes. Far too often in the midfield we carelessly gave the ball away and in defending the edge of our own box we made poor decisions and instead of clearing the danger and re-organising, we would give the ball straight to the opposition. To cap it all off there was a deathly silence falling over the Oatlands team.

Our problems culminated in the 25th minute of the game when a UniS player collected the ball on the left hand side of the pitch. He cut in and then was allowed to run across the 18 yard completely unchallenged and despite being surrounded by OFC players he was allowed to shoot and scored. 0-1.

Going a goal down seemed to bring about an improvement for us in terms of effort and determination and we very quickly drew level.

After stringing together a couple of passes Jordy picked the ball up on the left hand side of midfield, it may seem strange to say this about Jordy, but he played the perfect ball to Steve C, which opened up the Surrey defence. With just the keeper to beat, Steve hit his shot first time and OFC were level. 1-1.

After drawing level with the Uni we very nearly took the lead following a Jarv corner from our right hand side. The keeper made a very good stop from a close range header

Despite being very much still in the game, in the run up to half time we just didn't look like we wanted to win the game. The University had quite a bit of possession and we seemed to grow frustrated at chasing the ball round and resorted to arguing with the referee every time we hacked one of their players down attempting to get the ball.

At half time Jim, who was again in charge in Phil's absence re-iterated that we were very much in the game and that there was no reason why we couldn't get at least a point. With no injury concerns we went back out in the second half looking for some improvement on the first.

The first minute of the second half unfortunately set the tone for the rest of the match. We had the kick off and from the restart a series of defensive calamities, failures to clear the ball and eventually what looked like a through ball from an OFC player culminated in possibly the worst goal I have ever seen us concede. Abbeylands girls select XI would have cut through the defence in the first minute of the second half.

The body language on the pitch from many of the OFC players suggested there was nothing more left and that we were quite happy to accept another defeat and pick up a few more yellow cards on the way.

Shortly after the second half started we were forced to make our first change. Rob Hunter came on for Jarv after several confrontations with the referee meant it would only be a matter of time before the referee produced another yellow card and we were down to ten men.

From the side one of our most obvious problems was our total inability to commute with each other, often resulting in missed opportunities to pass the ball to another Oatlands player, players getting cheaply dispossessed and no encouragement.

As an attacking force we offered very little in the way of creativity and subsequently chances, Steve Clarke was unlucky not to get a second goal after being released from midfield but dragged his shot wide. But even the best strikers in the world aren't expected to score every time they have a chance.

The next 2 goals again came as a result of our mistakes rather than the Uni's carving us open and 2-1 was quickly to become 4-1 and if it wasn't for a series of good saves by Chris Harper the score could have been much worse.

The last 15 minutes of the game were an improvement in terms of effort and application but it was not enough to stop a free header from a corner completing the rout and making 5-1.

After what seemed like an eternity the referee mercifully bought the game to an end.

Overall it was a woefully poor performance all round. Virtually all the goals that were scored came as a result of mistakes made by us and all the decent chances they actually created were well stopped by Harps. Going forward we offered very little in terms of invention or communication and in midfield we were second to nearly everything.

It is difficult to understand how we can go from such a lively atmosphere at training where we all constantly chat and pass the ball nicely as a result, to absolute dead silence on a Saturday where the only sort of chat is to argue with the referee.

Things have to improve dramatically if we are to turn things round, at the beginning of the season we talked about the possibility of promotion, as things stand we need to start looking behind us as we are creeping towards the bottom 3 places in the table.

A big thanks to all those that came down to support this week and especially to Andy Ellis who came down but was an unused substitute.