For the third time this season we went down to Aztec by the odd goal.
Down to a bare 12 players, Thrapston were up against it from the start against the League leaders. In a first half which saw both teams try to play football in windy conditions Thrapston managed to score against the run of play when Matthew Smith beat numerous players and defenders (too many to count!) before poking the ball past the stranded Aztec keeper. Thrapston then conceded a soft equalizer just before half time when 3 defenders stood looking at the ball, which allowed the alert striker to pick up and punish such sloppy play. This is a feature of our game, which we need to cut out as this has cost us dear recently.
Thrapston started the second half slowly and went 2 - 1 down when a shot was picked up by the wind leaving the keeper wrong footed, in fact to the point where he twisted his knee. Struggling with players Luke Stevens was put in goal and the team was patched up the best it could. Thrapston battled hard for the remainder of the game but could for the third time this season break down the strong and well-organized Aztec defense.
Man of the Match Jake Lockart who unfortunately (for us) was playing his last game for Thrapston before he flies back to the States. He played a real captains game and was well worthy of the Man of the Match award.
Final Score – Thrapston 1 FC Aztec Braves 2
Sloppy defending has again cost us dear, if we are to beat teams at this level we cannot continue to make the kind of mistakes we are making at present.
