Redolence unlucky to lose

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Another day another game against Redditch Cross; The reds were missing a number of key players today but the squad showed it's strength in depth, with Scott opting for a 4-4-2 formation of Tomlinson, Seager, Holdstock and K.Price, a midfield duo of Bromhead and Bowen with Billingham and Bryan on the wings, and the returning Sproston partnering Lees up front. On the bench today were Randle, Hawkins, new signing Deon and of course Few to make up the numbers.

The first half showed great promise for Redolence, who limited Cross to a couple of scrambled efforts but were themselves dominating play. Holdstock fired wide from a Bromhead cross but his blushes were saved by the offside flag; it wouldn't be long before he was involved in goalmouth action once again...

Redolence were getting a lot of joy from Seager's long free kicks into the box, delivered with elegance and precision time and again, but it was Cross who would have the ball in the net, only to be denied by the offside flag themselves. The younger of the Price brothers saved Redolence on a number of occassions thanks to his positive positional play and accurate tackling, he took the opportunity of a start today after a lengthy period on the bench to demonstrate his importance to the first team.

Bowen showed composure on the ball in the middle, spreading play and taking his time to play the right ball. That's the kind of comfort you get with Bromhead grafting around you, but it does make a difference to the team and adds a lot more control to the play.

A superb Redolence moved summed up the danger they posed in the first half; Price tackling smartly in the opponents half to provide Sproz with a run into the edge of the box, who fired in a low cross only for Lees to blaze over the bar. In other news, Seager headed the floor, Stu got down on his hands and knees in what looked like prayer, Holdstock narrowly missed a backheel yards from goal and Bowen span his way out of a 3-on-1 situation with a double Cruyff turn.

HT: 0-0

Few, understandably delighted with the first half performance, gave Bowen a rest and handed new signing Deon Colstock his first start. The second half was a very quiet affair; inevitably this lack of communication lead to the first goal for Cross as Holdstock and Seager both slid and missed the ball, leaving the Cross striker to fire into the middle of the goal past the outreaching arm of Davis.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tomlinson found himself booked for foul and abusive language. However, surprisingly, this was his first yellow card of the season.

Redolence drew level thanks to quick thinking from Lees, who smartly took a free-kick on the edge of the Cross area and passed it into the bottom corner of the net. It should be noted that Sproston earned the free kick, incredibly controlling the ball on the front of his neck before being brought down. Not something I've seen before.

Not long later and Cross had retaken the lead in what can only be described as a catalogue of errors from Redolence. A failure to close down the the Cross left winger on two occassions allowed him to waltz into the box and deliver a nearpost cross; Holdstock was on hand to sublimely spin his hooked right footed clearance off the outside of his boot and straight through the gap inbetween Davis's arms not a yard away from him. The game was over.

FT: 2-1

Verdict

Redolence will no doubt feel agrieved to have lost a game they performed so well in; but ultimately someone has to lose and if Cross did hang on a bit, they did so for 90 minutes, which will alays beat 60 minutes of dominating football. There are however a great many positives to take from today's performance, the positive attitude showed throughout and the missing players will have a job to get back into the first team. Kieran Price is a far better player than he believes himself to be and is my Man of The Match, though the referee awarded it to Seager for his second of the season. The front four broke time and again dangerously. However, Redolence still have to defend far too many balls into the box and the half time break killed the momentum. If we can apply greater pressure farther up the pitch and force ourselves into the second half of the game we will surely have many joyous occassions to look forward to.