Loss on the road for 1st team

Today was an trip to face Hastag United, who led the division for very much of last season. The Actonians starting lineup was very similar to the midweek game against QPR with Rhi replacing Dominika being the only change while Meila was still away. The journey to Aveley football club took a bit longer than anticipated so I missed the first 10 minutes but the lady at the gate assured me I hadn’t missed much from either team at that point.

With a lot of the play in the Actonians half from when I arrived we weren’t really able to offer too much going forward and a few of our attempts to do so were quickly shut down by the Hashtag players and our backline were working hard to keep them at bay too. In the 34th minute Hashtag took the lead and if Actonians had gone in just the one goal down it would have been a reflection of how the game had gone but on the stroke of half-time Hashtag doubled their lead, leaving Actonians a bigger mountain to climb in the second half.

However Actonians came out positive and within a minute of the second half, halved the deficit. A ball was played over the top that Maria and Sam chased. Sam won the ball from the opposing keeper which Maria was able to slot home. In the 52nd minute Mica and Shakes replaced Sarah and Rhi. Despite Actonians efforts to level the score Hashtag restored a two-goal lead on 58 minutes. Three minutes after that Actonians won a free kick on the edge of the area which Natsumi converted to half the deficit once more. Actonians worked hard in their attempts to draw level, including a long range shot from T’Yana in the 69th minute, but with a quarter of an hour remaining it was Hashtag who scored again. Jasmine came on in place of Naomi after that and offered a lot of energy in the front line. Sam nearly got on the end of one of her crosses but unfortunately there were to be no more goals in the game. 4-2 to Hashtag.

Actonians never really got going until the second half today and it was always going to be tough to get at least a draw out of a game against the team that are probably favourites to win the division this season. The second half performance was very promising and showed signs that better results are round the corner. Natsumi worked hard throughout in midfield and was my player of the match today. A break from the league next week with a cup trip to face Cambridge City before Wimbledon away at Plough Lane.

Player of the match: Natsumi
Report by Neil Hayward
Photo by Ryan Asman