Unfortunately, the game was marred by some extreme refereeing, which in my opinion was totally unnecessary. By the end of the game there were about 9 bookings which meant that the game didn’t stand a chance to flow at all and I don’t think any of the incidents deserved yellow cards on either side.

We didn’t seem to have the desire in midfield that we did the previous week and Earls Barton went a goal behind in about 15 minutes. We then had a lot of possession for a short spell beyond this but each time we got a chance to have a shot it went straight to the Higham Keeper. Going in at half time 1 – nil down I couldn’t believe we still hadn’t scored.

It was a catch 22 situation because I wanted the boys to go out 2nd half and “challenge” for the ball more but they were also aware that the referee was blowing up for each and every tackle on the pitch. Keets was playing more as a winger than a forward and as the ball was coming down that left hand side he was limited on options because he should have been in the box on the receiving end of those passes!!

Higham had a corner which in all fairness was taken very well and headed in to the net to bring us 2 nil down.

Yet as we know, we have been able to turn around a game in the past within a few minutes so I encouraged the boys to keep going and this paid off as 5 minutes later Earls Barton scored when we took a corner and Higham cleared it out to the edge of the box where Addis was waiting, he crossed it back in towards goal and Deanno came running in at the left hand post and stuck it in the back of the net.

Higham continued to put pressure on and scored their 3rd goal from a free kick just outside the area.

The Barton boys were really frustrated by now but pushed on and we managed to score again - when Keets received the ball in the middle of the park and turned to beat 2 players he then laid it out to Addis on the right who had a decent shot but the keeper paried it out, luckily though it was to where Ryan Brayfield was waiting to slot it home. We were back in the game!!

Earls Barton won a corner in the last few minutes and everyone was told to get into the box because we had nothing to lose at 3 – 2 down. The corner finished up turning in to 2 corners and during the panic in the box there was a call for hand ball off of one of the Higham players and the referee gave Earls Barton the dubious penalty. Keets aware of the fact that we were almost out of time, comfortably slotted the ball home to give us a share of the points on the day.
A draw in the circumstances was probably a fair result.

We do need to give 100% in each and every game we play and although I don’t think we had a bad game today I know we can do better. We have to turn the 1 point in to 3 points though.

On the plus side we are still unbeaten in the league so far this season so well done boys.