The poor start to the season continued for Fleet Spurs A as we were beaten 3-1 by local rivals Letef.  From the off, it was clear that many of the Fleet players didn’t fancy running around in the heat.  Meaningful challenges were few and far between, opposing players were not shut down and were given space to do what they fancied with the ball which luckily, most of the time, wasn’t too damaging.  Stringing two consecutive passes together proved tricky but Fleet did manage to create the better chances in the first half, however, true to form, the forwards gloriously spurned everything that came their way.

The visitors took the lead when Dan Fluety glanced a header through his own net.  Letef offered little more in attack and Fleet got the equalizer just before half-time when Kev Wallace found himself on the edge of the box.  With the ball dropping out of the summer sky, Wallace let fly with an impressive high-kick that Mr Miyagi would have been proud of – unfortunately for Wallace, he missed the ball, although it bounced kindly and he smashed it into the top left corner at the second attempt.  The game was a poor spectacle and limped into the break on level terms.

In the second half, Fleet shuffled the pack from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 but showed no signs of improving.  Letef managed an early second half goal – Fleet giving up the ball on the half-way line and allowing the opposition to slice through the defence with minimal effort and slide the ball past a helpless Thornett.  The writer missed much of the second half as he was enjoying a hot shower but emerged just in time to see Fleet concede again late in the game, the Letef substitute marksman given the freedom of the box to smash the ball into the roof of the net with Thornett wincing as the ball whistled past his ear.

A poor showing from the A-team but surely things can only get better from here??

Words by Russ Hammond