Sports undone by table toppers

Cove are a powerful team who play direct pacy football and are on a run from which they have gained a lot of confidence.

This was shown in the early stages of this game but it was more or less what had been expected. Bedfont set up with a positive 4 3 3 formation and although the Cove were dangerous it was Bedfont that should have scored first. An early ball into space between the full back and the centre back put Jordan Esprit in a race with the Cove centre back. There was only going to be one winner and even though the centre back was clearly fouling Esprit and almost brought him down, Esprit stayed on his feet and was through one on one with the keeper, however his shot was straight at the keeper and the chance was gone. It is quite possible that, with a bit more contact or if Esprit had gone down, that the defender could have been sent off. It was slightly disappointing when the referee failed to take any action against the defender.

So this was turning into a good game but Cove as stated expect to score goals and this confidence made a difference. Their first goal came from a corner that Mick Snowden felt could have been dealt with but it doesn't matter which system is used in these situations if a player makes an error of judgement then the possibility is you will get punished.

Cove's second goal was more to do with the ability of the player than any mistake. He picked the ball up on the edge of the box dropped his shoulder stepped inside and hit a sweet shot into the corner of the net leaving Josh Richardson no chance.

Bedfont changed their formation that on paper may have looked a negative move but was done in order to try to increase their chances of scoring whilst restricting the opposition. From this point on Bedfont looked like a really good team and played better balanced football.

In the second half they certainly caused Cove lots of problems without really having a cutting edge. They had better possession and were able to create more attacks several of which caused Cove defenders to give away fouls on the edge of their penalty area. None of the resulting free kicks tested the goalkeeper however. Cove showed their strengths by creating scoring opportunities even though their football was not dominant.

All in all this Bedfont performance was better than some of those that have secured three points. Certainly youth team player Norman Bukowski's debut was a major positive along with a thirty minute substitute debut for Brian Obonyo.

Bedfont are gradually increasing their playing staff and this leads to a feeling that they are moving in the right direction.

So even though three points were lost the feeling within the first team camp is a positive one.