Early bird catches the worm!!

Southbank welcomed Black Boy to Coley Park hoping to avenge the defeat on the opening day of the season. The Bank missing a number of players with injury and unavailability still managed to field a strong team with Sparky and Towner playing central midfield and Broomfield having to be satisfied with a place on the bench alongside Holton.

However, having not played for a couple of weeks things quickly took a turn for the worse as the Bank found themselves 2 nil down to sloppy goals at the back within the first 15 minutes. Both goals could have been avoided and to make things worse, Olly felt a muscle problem and had to be replaced after 20 minutes, and a reshuffle meaning Broomfield replacing the injured Bradbury into Central Midfield and Sparky returning to his more accustomed role at Central Half alongside High Tower.

After this set back Bank set about reducing the deficit but found life hard-going and couldn’t really argue with the situation going into Half-Time. Things couldn’t get any worse but there were about too, shortly before half-time the ‘rock’ Latchey went in for a 50-50 ball with their player and took a knock on the arm. At half-time he appeared to be happy to continue but was soon replaced early in the second half by Holton, news filtered through later that Latch had actually suffered a break to the arm which would keep him out for a number of weeks. Another blow to the already injury ravaged Bank and we hope to have him back as soon as possible.

The second half saw a more sound solid display for the Bank who continued to trade punches with the Boy, sometimes quite literally. Poor refereeing didn’t help the situation for either side and it is the credit of both sides that things never boiled over although plenty of ‘strong’ challenges provided the opportunity for this too happen.

The one clear cut opportunity for the Bank at 2 nil fell to the reliable Holton mid-way though the 2^nd half and what happened next really summed up not only the game but perhaps Southbank’s season. The ball coming in from the left was met by Holton with his right foot and directed it into the ground for what appeared a certain goal. Somehow the goalie, which previously never appeared to have anything to do, pulled off a save which could only be described as remarkable. 1-2 the game would have been different but this was not the way and as the Bank pressed for a way back in, Boy cleaned up and grabbed a third which left the Bank with no way back. The Bank failed to clear the ball from a cross and it fell to one of their players to put the seal on a good performance for Black Boy. The Bank were beaten and left to battle out the final minutes with only pride to play for as the Boy continued to look to add to their score.

So the Bank were left to reflect on what was perhaps the most disappointing performance of the season and certainly in recent memory, two early goals proving too much and meant that the Bank now have to rebuild another run of good results which had come before.