Wet Wet Wet

A biblical first half downpour welcomed our first Allied Counties home game of the season at the Kamtech Stadium on a wet and soggy Thursday night. The opponents were once again Penn & Tylers Green who we had played last week, narrowly losing out 4-3 in a close encounter. Unfortunately this match was not such a close affair, and sloppy defending cost Risborough dearly, ruthlessly punished by an experienced Penn team.

The match started scrappily as both teams struggled to get to grips with the weather, however on 8 minutes the first chance fell to Ris when a free kick from George Caille was met by a powerful header from Dev Ballantyne which went just wide. Then on 13 minutes a slick passing move on the right hand side led to a cut back and neat finish to put Penn 0-1 up. Then 5 minutes later it was 0-2 when another jinking run and speculative shot from the edge of the box somehow evaded the keeper and nestled inside the far post.

With the rain still teeming down Risborough pushed forward and got their reward on 25 minutes when Sam Wilkins found Charlie Stupples in the box. A neat pass to Alfie Peake-Pijnen saw his powerful shot blocked, but Charlie was there for the rebound to lash into the corner for 1-2. The game looked to be playing out to half time, but then with 5 minutes to go a Penn cross was not headed clear, and fell to a free player on the edge of the box to lash into the top corner for 1-3.

The second half was all about who could score first, and it took Penn just 5 minutes to answer that question. A corner from the right found both goalkeeper and defender rooted to the spot for Penn to tap home at the far post. This pretty much ended the game as a contest with the only notable events being countless injuries to Risborough players which saw all 5 subs used by 75 minutes. On 81 minutes Penn scored what was to be the final goal of the game, when another speculative shot from outside the area was spilled for Penn to stab in their 5th.

Penn were well worthy of their win, however yet again sloppy defending cost us dearly, and it's something the players need to reflect on and put right as quickly as possible. On to Didcot next Monday