Southbank played their first game for two months against top of the league Tilehurst United and came out 5-1 losers.  This game was always going to be tough against a workman like but effective United side but the lack of fight in the Southbank side, coupled with poor finishing and some shambolic defending, saw United ease to an easy victory.

Things could have been so different as Southbank came out flying and created 2 or 3 very good chances in the first ten minutes.  However, the steam soon went from the side as last nights alcohol wore off the hangovers set in.  After having the best of the opening exchanges Uniteds top scorer finished off two direct through balls leaving Spokes helpless with both.  Then Bryce, who had shown some good early touches and set up a couple of the early goal attempts went off after 20 minutes to be replaced by Andy Hands.  This meant changing the shape of the side and this disrupted the side for a while. United managed to get a third after some poor marking from a corner to give themselves a bit of breathing space.  Despite the scoreline, and the tiring Southbank legs, the general play was still reasonably even with Gale and Ben Thurgood showing some good touches and causing the United defence problems.  

The Southbank goal finally came after the referee awarded a dubious free kick on the edge of the box.  Ricky Gale stepped up and curled a fine free kick into the top corner to leave the keeper with no chance.  This was a deserved lifeline that gave Southbank the slightest glimmer of hope.

The second half saw a switch to 3-5-2 to combat the pace of  Uniteds center forward with Budda sweeping behind Sam and Hanky who'd replaced the injured Dave Rodgers.  This seemed to work until the Southbank legs went completely and Untied got well on top.  The 4th United goal came after Allan Kemp, who was one of a few players to come out of the game with much credit, was unlucky to give away a penalty after winning the ball with a last ditch tackle.  The 5th and final goal came after Spokes, who made a several decent saves, did well to flick a shot onto bar only to see the United forward have a free header from 1 yard to make it 4 for the day.

All in all a poor performance from The 'Bank who had too many players off form and suffered from a general lack of fight and will to win.  The Tilehurst side is one that we could easily have beaten had it not been our own attitude and the finishing of their forward.

Team: Spokes, Booth, Kemp, Madden, Rodgers (Hankinson), Thurgood, Towner (Smalley), Brown, Bellman (Hands), Holton, Gale