We have been confined to our 17th league loss of the season following our 2-0 away defeat versus Hampton & Richmond Borough last night at the Beveree Stadium.
To further add to our misery, this result keeps us 14 points off 20th-place Welling United, with us and The South-East-London side now having played the same number of games.
Put simply, our survival hopes have become even tougher, and Saturday’s game at home to “The Wings” is now all the more crucial.
But meanwhile in South West London the sour scoreline was not reflective of our performance, as we created numerous chances throughout the game.
Yet we were unable to capitalise on our advantage once again, as “The Beavers” scored two goals, via Archy Taylor and then Mike Atkinson, in the final 10 minutes of regular time.
Warren Feeney appeared understandably deflated after the final whistle, expressing the need for us to “put the ball in the net at the right time.”
“If you don’t,” Warren said, “…you’re going to get a sucker punch.”
A feeling we know all too well.
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
Our line-up announcement before the game revealed a new winger, Diamond Edwards, who joined us yesterday on-loan from League-Two side Port Vale.
With our fresh starting team, now including three players arriving at the club in the past week, we began just as energetically as the hosts, Ibrahim Meite winning us a corner inside just two minutes.
We did then have to ride The Beavers’ storm until around the quarter-hour, a period that saw two chances struck at Will Buse’s goal.
The first opportunity saw Alan Julian’s side break down the right-hand side and into the box, the final strike luckily dragging wide of the post.
Their second sight at goal was slightly more of a gift, as Jake McCarthy misplaced the ball into Makise Evans, his effort luckily flying over the bar.
We struck back shortly afterwards, in the 18th minute, when Brandon Goodship whipped an accurate cross towards Tom Bearwish, our skipper unfortunate to miskick the ball as it came to him at speed.
Though both sides had made a lively start, the most exciting thing about this game was undoubtedly Diamond, his energy carrying him up and down the flank as he danced past the opposition.
His energy allowed him to pick out Ibrahim Meite with a cross, which could have given us the chance to open the scoring had the ball not been cleared behind before our forward reached it.
But he wasn’t the only newcomer who stood out in the first half; Rio Davidson-Phipps, recently welcoming a baby with his partner, was effective for us at the other end of the pitch as he went to ground and cleared Renedi Masampu’s corner behind just after the hour-mark.
Then, as the game remained all to play for, we had another close call one minute before added time when Ibrahim was fed a cross by usual delivery-man Leo Hamblin.
Our forward then headed the ball down, although no one on our team was able to reach it.
SECOND-HALF SUCKER PUNCH
We’ve seen how quickly the top teams can punish us, and this was almost seen again just two minutes into the second half when Masampu struck over the bar.
But soon after, Diamond turned on the style and almost found Ben Greenwood with a through-ball just three minutes later.
The hosts appeared to struggle to contain our new winger as the game ticked on, as they scrambled to clear away his 57th-minute cross after he dribbled into the box.
The subsequent corner from Goody was even more dangerous, his delivery meeting Jake’s head, whose flicked header landed just wide.
But then, 10 minutes later, the hosts fought back when Taylor beat three of our defenders before firing wide.
Perhaps his chance would be a sign of later things to come.
By the time there was 15 minutes of regular time remaining, Julian’s side had begun to grow into the game across this half, and would have taken the lead in the 76th minute had Jordon Thompson not cleared off the line.
But our defensive interceptions could not help us five minutes later as a double-deflection took the ball into Taylor’s path to slot home.
In a very similar situation to one that we know all well this season, we found ourselves 1-0 down with nine minutes to go.
Now we were very much on the back foot, and in the final minute of regular time we were punished once again.
Substitute Alex Wall’s initial strike hit the post, before JT cleared off the line again.
But there was still danger as George Hunt cut back to Atkinson inside the box, who side-footed into the net to make it 2-0 to The Beavers, and ultimately confine us to another league defeat.
