MOM - Matt Wells
DOD - Ben Green

A nice trip down the sea to play Bournemouth and steal some points didn't start out the way we had hoped....
We had suddenly lost an hour for the 1 o clock start we had planned for and quickly had to get warmed up in the little 20 minutes we had on the clock.

After the whistle had blown and the game settled into full speed, the experience soon shone through and we settled into our game within minutes. Our keeper Fin was tested early on but stood his ground, and parried away their shots as we got our shape back. James Laszlo’s skills on a one on one with the keeper brought Staines an early penalty flick which skipper Richard Green slotted neatly past the keeper to give Staines an early lead. Staines defence stood firm to see out Bournemouth’s attacking play, whilst creating numerous chance of our own. Staines managed to convert one of these chances as James Laszlo showed his hunger to win a scrap in front of Bournemouth’s goal to slot away Staines second goal. Unfortunately the two goal cushion didn’t last long. Bournemouth went down the other end from a break away attack and scrambled the ball over the line to make it 2-1 at HT.

The second half started well with Staines dominating the possession. Staines made the most of this by working the ball up the pitch to Matt Wells who scored a “top bins” screamer from the edge of the D to restore a two goal lead. Shortly after this, Bournemouth were reduced to 10 men with one of their players shown a red card for verbal dissent towards the umpires following a yellow card offence. However, from that point on Staines did not take full control of the game even with a man advantage. With there being more space on the field to play in, gaps started to open up and Bournemouth managed to score another break away goal and then scored another shortly after from a short corner to make it 3-3. Staines kept pressing for the win and created many chances in the last 10 mins but unfortunately just could not find an end product.

It’s not the result Staines we’re hoping for given the two goal cushion and one man advantage. Nevertheless, a lot to learn from this game and the boys will be looking to bounce back strongly next week at home against Slough!