Champions tag weighs heavy on Meads
AFC Premier Division - Old Meadonians 0 Old Bealonians 0
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Old Meadonians hung on to the shirt tails of the league pace setters with yet another disappointing goalless draw at Riverside Lands on Saturday against a newly promoted Old Bealonians side which although four places below them have enough games in hand to move above them.
For Meads this was a very flat affair with little or no cohesion as defence, midfield and attack worked as three separate entities, or even occasionally four as strikers Ed Glover and Albert Adomah got isolated from each other.
The visitors were an ordinary team who would not have lived with Meads on last season’s showing but the champions must face reality and not let heads go down. The continued absence of top scorer Colin Hawkins and an injury list of six cannot be allowed to excuse listlessness and a loss of purpose which has driven them to five successive league titles. The defence, with Dan Salanson supreme is, thankfully, as watertight as ever but a lack of fluidity in midfield yielded few chances up front.
In the first half Glover worked himself an opening only to be denied by the keeper’s leg. The truth is that Meads could have been one down midway through the second half as a push saw the visitors awarded a penalty. The ball was pulled wide but it was noticeable that keeper Kris Sayers was well across his goal and in control of things. In the dying minutes Kevin Quinn had the chance to snatch an unmerited win when his lob beat the advancing goalie but came back off the bar.
Team: Sayers, Salanson, Hugh Jones, Williamson, Lovell, Costello, Quinn, O’Brien, (Cope), Glover, Adomah.
David Stanners
October 27, 2005