Loddon Utd 4 - 5 Blofield Sat 2nd Nov 2024 2.00pm ko
Scorers: Chrissy, Rob, Liam (pen), Shorty
Assists: Chrissy, Alex K (won pen), Sarg.
Loddon: Daniel Loades; Tom Sergeant, Josh Knights, Robin Andersen (capt.),
Alex Kounnas; Liam Pye, Jacob Short; Chris Husband; Harvey Johnson,
Shane Smith, Darrell Wigger.
Subs: Tom Blythe-Bartram, Matthew Webb, Max Ayre,
Manager: Elliott Hannant Asst: Max Ayre

How we can score four and lose is still a mystery to me? But then identifying and finding answers to these issues has never been my forté, hence my lack of management credentials. After three good results this defeat leaves us just 2 pts above the bottom.
It was good to have Alex Kounnas back after a long layoff, but the absence of Marcus up front proved to be a big miss.
We started well enough and an early break saw Chrissy tripped on the edge of the Blofield box, advantage offered but Wigga unable to capitalise. Blofield responded with a corner headed over the bar. On 5 mins., Chrissy pinched possession just outside Blofield’s area, took his shot early with the outside of his right foot and classily beat the onrushing keeper. 1 – 0 Great start.
Alex K was sharp in stopping a Blofield break but Shane could not latch onto his through ball. Milo was sent to the ‘forbidden garden’ on ball retrieval and came back…with a pumpkin! Blofield then equalised after Chrissy mis-controlled and the no9 nipped in to fire past Dan. 1 – 1
Blofield had the upper hand even though the game was still quite end to end. Liam did well to stop their no.9 when through. Rob was close when getting to Alex’s free kick at the far post before Liam again pressed well to force Blofield back. But three minutes later Blofield were ahead and I didn’t note down, or care, how. 1 – 2
Liam found Harv on the right but with no near post runner (again) his decent cross went begging. A Blofield shot was blocked before Knightsy, Rob and Sarg defended well eventually getting the ball out to Wigga who shot just over.
Loddon legend ‘Brocky Mixup’ showed up to lend his support and kindly remind me of my midfield failings back in the day! Just what I needed.
Wigga and Alex won a corner. Chrissy took, received the clearance, laid off to Alex whose ‘airshot’ gave us a smile until the Blofield break was missed by Sarg and stopped by Liam. Wigga won another corner and this time the Robster rose at the far post to head down and home. 2 – 2
We survived a free kick which Sarg cleared as a few feisty tackles were put in. We took a free kick short, got closed, and ended up going back to Dan. So close to half time, couldn’t we plop one behind their full back rather than invite pressure?? HT

Pretty much from the restart Wigga put Alex through into the box. He got his toe to the ball first, went over the keeper, pen given and Liam stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way and put us back into the lead. 3 – 2
Good play by Chrissy and Sarg set up Wigga for a shot, a bobble almost foxing the visiting keeper. It was frantic in our box as we defended a free kick but Sarg eventually cleared. Rob made a great block at full stretch and a shot from distance was straight to Dan. Sarg had to cover as Alex conceded possession before winning it back and putting Wigga away. He squared to Harv, but poor control allowed Blofield the chance to send away their no9 who punished us just before the hour. 3 – 3
We offered big gaps for Blofield to play through and our early second half tempo waned. Robin saw yellow after he was forced to trip just outside our box. Their no9, looking for his hattrick, fired over. El decided it was time for change so Webbo replaced Liam. We had a freekick and played backwards to Webbo even though Shane and Harv had both made runs. Sarg cleared after a Blofield corner and Dan collected the resulting shot. Tom B-B came on for Wigga, Rob took a free kick and Chrissy tried an overhead kick from 6 yds straight to the keeper. Dan had to come out of his box to knee one away before a lovely pass by Tom B-B to Chrissy almost came to something when Chrissy ghosted past two defenders. With about 20 mins to go Max came on to replace Shane but immediately Blofield launched the ball long into our box, the ball fell kindly and Blofield were ahead 3 – 4
After good play by Webbo, Rob looked for Shorty on a run, but the keeper came and took both Shorty and the ball. Blofield broke quickly and Dan had to close the forward and force the shot wide. Webbo made a couple of good tackles but Blofield looked dangerous every time they came forward and we looked a bit down and struggled to find a pass. Sarg managed a shot well off target from a tight angle and following a cleared corner Chrissy did the same. Harv picked up a loose ball after Max challenged, and swung it out in front of Sarg. He chased what seemed like a lost cause but nicked the ball off a defender, played it to Alex who crossed low first time to find Shorty, on a near post run (at last) who cleverly back heeled the ball foxing both defender and keeper and score inside the post. 4 – 4
This gave us a much needed lift and put Blofield on their heels. Webbo did well and Tom B-B found Rob who hit a delightful diagonal which the ever mobile Sarg couldn’t quite reach. Knightsy started a good move chipping forward to Alex who turned and fed Max on the right. He then set up Sarg and his miss-hit shot found the garden…ta ta Milo. Rob recovered possession after Webbo had been caught. More good play by us broke down and Tom B-B was on hand to stop the break. We were heading for approx 8 minutes of injury time with momentum on our side. In the frantic nature of the closing minutes their lino failed to flag when the opposition thought Chrissy was offside. His comment to us on the side was ‘I may be incompetent but I’m not a cheat’…I love that. They needn’t have worried, Chrissy got his feet in a muddle and didn’t find glory! Then disaster…. Blofield went long left, crossed and missed a relatively easy header. The ball was then crossed from the other side and somehow ended up in our net after coming off several bodies. 4 – 5.
Not a great performance but some good spells at times. There is still the shining light that is Sarg who again gets the Musker McIntyre MOM
Thanks to the Ref… a decent game but what happened to the last 90 seconds you promised?? Shankly said it only takes a second to score a goal!

No sponsor to thank this week so if anyone is interested for a future game, let me know.

Another Tuesday afternoon of my life gone; it’s no fun when we lose…any volunteers to do a report? See you at Caister…..Up the Dons! …. JC