We're wiiiiining in the rain,

Well it was only a matter of time till we caught some weather and boy did we catch it.

Pouring from 10 minutes before kick off to the end of the game and yes you guessed it, then it stopped.

The score line tells you a story of the game, but not the full story.

This was a really tough game against an opponent who had proven themselves too good for some teams that had beaten us this season.

We arrived at the ground nice and early, we've got into a great routine of meeting early and being ready. There were too many things we did haphazardly before and most of this season up to this point has been about setting standards, and developing good habits.
I'll always take development over results in the short term. With good development habits, the results and performances will follow.

This game proved we are on the right track.

Usually we follow a planned session before a game, but when I saw the length of the grass, those plans went out of the window.
Instead a light warm up and lots of passes to get used to the pace of the pitch. After that the rain came and we got started.

The team was changed at the very last minute as some boys looked more up for it than others, and then changed again soon into it, for tactical reasons.

What that tells us is we have a group who have already learned to adapt, to change. To accept, sometimes against their better judgement, a decision and get on with it. If they come off, they come back on with more determination. Thats the standard they've set for themselves. It's now up to them not to fall below it. A team is by definition, a group linked by a common purpose. This was the first real team performance.

I remember being told on numerous occasions last year, that "this team can't play in the rain!"

Well that's well and blown out of the water.

From the outset we were intent on imposing ourselves on the game, good slick play, first to the ball on most occasions, fast assertive football. Yusuf looks so comfortable at the moment, his willingness to compete with defenders means he's leading the team from the front. His hat trick aside he had a great game, causing problems for their defence.

Nassim and Reece settled very quickly and got a real grip of the centre of midfield, a grip that was held throughout. So much so, that I didn't change it at all, they didn't let me. Which meant the changes came around them. Luca was the first to make way, quite quickly as he had so much space down the right that we needed Joe's pace to expose it, and he did. Henry came on for Asa quite early as well as his left foot was needed, against the right footed full back, and he announced himself with a banging tackle.

Henry did well on Sunday, and in no small part down to playing two 60 minute matches for Rangers in the last two weeks. He's going to play for them for a while now to keep getting a guaranteed 50 minutes. I think it's already shown to be good for his development.
So good luck there Henry, I'll be coming to watch regularly to see how you're getting on.

So we earned ourselves a 2 goal lead after 20 minutes, and having been there and lost earlier this season, we looked to make sure that didn't happen again.

We had the lead, but it wasn't all one way traffic, but there was a difference. Our back 3 for the first 20 were on fire. Aiden is fast becoming a rock at the back. Each week he adds a little something extra to his game, Elliott looks comfortable on the left and Frankie put in the best 20 minutes any of our centre backs have played so far this season. Fully committed to dealing with the problems that came up.

We cruised through to half time, without taking too many chances, or making them for that matter.

The second half was a battle, I felt that Kingston were determined not to lose to a team below them, but thats not the way to play football, you play whats in front of you, and we did that well on Sunday. Thats what we aim to do every Sunday.

Shay, making his debut in goal, started because Stan had fallen out of a tree and hurt himself. Shay is an old team member who has come back and a welcome return he made, I think a clean sheet speaks for itself, with assured hands and a loud voice. A timely return indeed.

The great thing about the team is different boys stand out for all the right reasons each week. Even in defeat, none stand out for the wrong reason.

We worked hard through the second half, and grabbed the third goal, which finished the game as a contest. We changed players around to keep them warm whilst looking to nick another, which would have flattered us, but this result was fair.

We have a tough game next week, but with a similar performance we'll leave happy, regardless of the result.

Man of the match- Aiden, getting better and better game by game.