An under strength Allenton United suffered a St Valentines Day massacre at the hands of Strand Utd 3rds in a match which was marred by some quite astonishing refereeing and the sending off of club chairmen Thomas Hogan.
We failed to learn the lessons of 2008 and invited Strand Utd to dictate the play in the early stages. Two quickfire goals (a glancing header and a well placed shot) saw Strand Utd 3rds establish a commanding two goal lead mid way through the first half.
To our credit Allenton rallied and the match became an evenly contested affair which allowed for some optimism of a fight back in the second half.
The turning point in the match was undoubtedly the third goal which coincided with the dismissal of Thomas Hogan. The referee awarded a throw-in to Allenton which has to be said should have been awarded to Strand Utd but nevertheless led to several of our players standing bewildered when Strand Utd took the throw and scored from the resulting break away to end any hopes of a come back.
Understandably the whole team were incredulous about the decision. The referee decided that Thomas Hogan had taken his protestations too far and a straight red for dissent followed. Personally I'm from the school of "there's no point harassing the referee as he's not going to change his mind" and therefore it's very easy to criticise our own player for his actions.
However when you reflect on the standard week for Thomas as club chairmen a little more understanding comes to light. Monday is spent organising who is available for training, Tuesday training, Wednesday to Friday organising whose available for match day, Friday evening making sure the kit is in order, Saturday morning marking the pitch with two other players before finally making sure everyone is going to turn up and dealing with last minute call offs and that's before he even steps onto the pitch.
In short Thomas puts his heart into the club and is well aware of how desperate everyone is to get a win on the board and to see that chance ripped away harshly is a bitter pill to swallow.
Now back to the referee and I realise those that didn't see the game will be thinking it's a case of sour grapes on the back of a heavy defeat but let me qualify my criticism by saying that Strand United where worthy winners on the day and are by no means an overly physical team. However when blatant fouls and body checks are allowed to go unpunished it undermines the spirit of the game and the effort put in by our players.
The referee also seems to have read that you should wait to see if there is an advantage to be played before blowing but all too often this led for needless delays or even worse no decision.
After being reduced to 10 men it was always going to be a case of damage limitation and despite fighting to the final whistle Strand United capitalised on their numerical advantage with two late goals.
The result leaves us marooned at the bottom of the table but one things for sure. If we do go down we'll go down fighting!
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