AFC GROUNDHOPPERS

League

 

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AFC Groundhoppers suffered their first defeat of the season against the always competitive Farnborough OBG. Since AFC GH were established 5-years ago games against Farnborough have only ever been settled by the odd goal so we knew that this would be a hard game from the outset. If form was anything to go by then Borough were bang in trouble but we all know that form means nothing in Sunday League football.

 

Hoppers did start the brighter and took an early lead when Sam Dangerfield collected a pass from Tanny Adebowale to finish from a tight angle. Joe Willis almost made it two, but his driven shot was saved well, before Dangerfield almost capitalised when the Borough keeper split a shot from Adebowale.

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It was all relatively comfortable for the first 20 minutes which may well have leaded to our downfall. It wasn’t the best of performances by any stretch of the imagination but what followed those 20/25 minutes was uncharacteristic of a side that seemed to have turned a corner. The Borough front-two worked hard and got their just rewards when a looping shot from a difficult angle caught Adam Ballard off guard to get the hosts back on level terms. Mistakes and lack of concentration continued to pour through the Hoppers side which allowed Borough to take the lead just before the break 2-1.

 

Gaffa, Darren Phillips tried to rally the troops for the second half, but nothing seemed to get us going. While Hoppers were on the attack Borough broke quickly and within three passes the Borough striker Alex Wray tucked home his hat-trick to make it 3-1. It was going from bad to worse for Hoppers who had more desire to argue and bite back at the opposition rather than play the game, so it was inevitable when Borough made it 4-1 from a corner that was poorly defended.

 

Credit to Denzil Rolle and Adebowale who tried to pull the side through to the end but even their positive performances couldn’t get the boys going. Rolle did reduce the arrears with a lovely looping shot from about 30-yards that flew over the Borough defence and into the bottom corner.  Adebowale almost made it 4-3 but his shot went wide before a free header was mistimed by Rolle.

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All in all, it was a dismal performance that needs to be locked away in the cupboard somewhere and forgotten about quickly. One thing I have learned over the years is never take any team lightly, especially when competing in the top two divisions of the OBDSFL.

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Thank you Sam Jacques for the action shots, although the team would rather you back on the pitch instead of behind the lens. Hopefully we will see Jacques back in action next weekend against Greencourt. 

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AFC Groundhoppers

Adam Ballard, Bradley Ladeinde, Rob Biggs, Joe Phillips, Kadeem Wallace, Johnston Brown, Denzil Rolle, Taiwo (Tanny) Adebowale, Sam Dangerfield, Tom Bolger, Joe Willis