At last footballs back and we weren't sure what team was going to turn out today. Given the weather the Croxley pitch looked to have held up well and it had already seen an early morning game on it.

The game started and it was clear that Croxley were happy to soak up pressure to release the ball to their two fast forwards to hit on the break. During the first 10 minutes of the game both Ihearnyi and Marley had opportunties to let fly on goal, but choose to turn in on their favourite foot and give up the chance to catch the keeper with a quick shot.

The first goal arrived care of a very clever blindside run by the Croxley midfielder running onto a through ball and finished very well to put them one. It was difficult to be too upset with the defence given the quality of the run, but in essence our guys were focussed on the ball and not the movement around them.

Croxley went 2 nil up due to an unfortunate own goal from Tye as it came off his shin and into the top corner of the goal. The more annoying thing was that none of his team mates told him he could leave it to run out for a goal kick.

Two nil down and we were still creating chances and playing good football, we wasted another couple of chances before Croxley's 3rd arrived from an unfortunate error by Liam diving past the ball and allowing the forward a tap in. For me Liam has saved us so many times this year he's entitled to a free one!!

The crazy thing is the actual match was very close and we kept on turning our nose up at chances. Croxley's forth goal came courtesy of a good break down the line by their winger which saw a nice cross converted by their forward. So at four nil down you could see the team were hurting, they had played, competed and were the equal of their competitors and yet poor finishing and poor defending had given Croxley a ridiculous lead.

However just before half time our left back Richie met a cleared header to power home a great shot passed the keeper and bring us back to 4-1.

H/T 4-1 Croxley

The ridiculous thing was that we all believed we still had a great shout in this match, we knew that errors and poor judgement were our biggest challenges. The second half started and for 15 minutes we missed chance after chance. It would be churlish not to acknowledge Croxley's keeper he brought off some fine saves but the 2nd half chances were all straight at the keeper!!!!

With Hemel doing all the pressing it was Croxley who scored next, a free kick was converted past the unfortunate Liam who could only palm the ball into the net. We needed a goal and it came courtesy of Tye to put us 5-2. We kept pressing and were rewarded with a third thanks to a smart finish from Will following a flick out from a corner.

At 5-3 and around 15 minutes to go we knew that if we got a fourth we were in with a real shout. Again good work down the right was rewarded with a corner, Iheanyi met it with a neat header deflecting off the head of the incoming defender and into the goal.

This was our moment, you could see Croxley could feel the match slipping away, anxiety and concern was etched on their faces. We had worked so hard to put ourselves into this position that it was so disappointing (some would say comical) that we gave Croxley a ridiculous 6th goal care of two defenders falling over trying to clear a ball.

So there it was, one minute we had our opponents on the ropes, their coaches looking to change back formations and personnel and inside one and a half minutes we had let them off the hook.

Croxley finished the game with a 7th which again you would argue whether the player meant what he was doing. But on this day I think Croxley probably finished with a 90+% converted goals to chances. If we had those sort of stats it would have been a comfortable victory.

I would like to congratulate the boys for a fantastic 2nd half that never got the credit for the possession, football and chances created. I'm sure at 4-1 Croxley were looking forward to an easy 2nd half and to have put them onto the ropes like we did is great a tribute to the hard work and determination of the team. If we can start to put our chances away we may win a few more matches.

Congrats to Croxley a good hard game played in a sporting a fair manner.