Another home game resulted in another defeat as championship chasers Didcot gave us our biggest league defeat of the season and sixth home defeat. We actually started the game quite well in what was always going to be a physical encounter but went behind in the 15th minute following a Didcot corner when the ball was bundled into the net. After only 20 minutes things became even worse for us when Stuart Hemsley was sent from the field for a second yellow card for deliberate handball to go with the earlier one he picked up for a foul and reduce us to ten men and with a mountain to climb for the rest of the game. Didcot then went further in front but a goal from Justin Hyde just before half time gave us some hope of getting something out of the game and made the half time score 1-2.

The second half started with Didcot taking control and making good use of the extra man and it was not long before they scored their third goal. But the most controversial incident of the game came soon after when a poor clearance from the Didcot keeper resulted in Harry Hambridge shooting from 40 yards and a Didcot defender punching the ball into his own net in an effort to try and stop the ball going in, with everyone expecting a red card for the Didcot player and a penalty for us and more importantly a chance to play the remainder of the game ten vs ten the referee awarded a goal and only gave a yellow card enabling Didcot to keep their numerical advantage.

With that decision we seemed to lose heart and conceded two further goals and Didcot also had another two disallowed for offside as we crumbled to defeat and were left wondering what might have happened if the referee would have made the same decision as we had suffered at Hungerford early in the season when Harry Sandhu was sent off and a penalty was given for exactly the same offence.

Mom: Chris Hawkins

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Monday 21st December 2020 at 11:45