Winning Streak Finally Ends!

For the first time this season, FC Bristbury's winning streak finally ended with not one, but two defeats.

In the Cup we faced Ilham FC at their ground for the second leg of Cup playoffs. At half-time it was obvious that we had work to do, with the score at nil-nil. Then 12 minutes after the break they managed to lot one in to take the lead 1-0. 11 minutes later Shaun Kelly scored the equaliser for FC Bristbury, and it looked like we had started to turn the game around. But 6 minutes before the final whistle they found their target and at that point we knew we were beaten. And so they won the leg 2-1, but much to their dismay, FC Bristbury had thrashed them 4-0 in the first leg, so FC Bristbury go through on a 5-2 aggregate.

Then this evening, in the League we faced 2nd place Smiddys FC, who we lead only on goal difference. Both managers were present and it made for an interesting match. We were on the back-foot from the start, since he changed his formation minutes before kick-off. It was a close fought match, with many changes in tactics on the part of both teams throughout - 25 minutes saw Smiddys FC take the lead 1-0. At 30 we brought on an extra striker to try and fight back - it didn't seem to work. at 48 minutes the visitors increased their lead to 2-0, and shortly afterwards changed formation. But all was not lost - at 59 minutes we got our first goal, to bring the score to 2-1. Still trailing by 1 goal we took the third striker off and brought on a fifth defender. We also changed from attacking mentality to defensive with counter attacks. It seemed to work its magic as at 68 minutes we scored the equaliser. 2-2. We would have been content to keep it at that and take a draw against this well managed team, and for a while, it looked like it would end like that. At 75 minutes they went down to 10 men as their man got a second yellow so was sent packing. Our lads were now thinking we might even score a winner. But as it went down to the last minute, it became obvious that this was not to be. A draw looked inevitable. But then, in the final minute their midfielder finally decided to wake up and take part. Out of the blue came a winner for Smiddys FC in the 90th minute. It was a fun match to manage, so lets see if we can beat them in the return match.