Result: Lost 0-2
Scorers:
Starting: Andy (goal), Ollie (left back), Alex and Reece (central defenders), Will S (right back), Stuart, Peter, Mathew S and Mark (midfield), Johnny and Max (forward)
Subs: Jack, Matthew C

Abbots weren’t at their best in this game, but even if they had been, they would might still have lost this game by a similar score-line. Muswell Hill were very good today throughout their team and had a firm grip on this game for nearly all of its duration.

All of the top teams in this division play with a 451 formation whereas Abbots tend to favour 442. The play was quite compressed on the pitch, and the extra Muswell Hill player in midfield did enable them to maintain a stranglehold on the game. Whenever Abbots did get the ball, their way forward always seemed to be blocked by Muswell Hill bodies close by.

The two goals against Abbots both came in the first half, the first after 19 minutes and the second after 29 minutes. In the second half, after a few tactical switches, Abbots were much better but still struggled to match Muswell Hill. During the first half Stuart had been playing quite deep in a wide position on the left, and for the second half stayed forward. Reece and Peter swapped positions, and this helped. Peter maintained the defensive ability of the team, but Reece’s release into midfield did enable some forward balls to be threaded through some narrow channels.

Muswell Hill’s main weakness was their very high defensive back line. There was masses of space between their last defender and the goalkeeper, which was ideal for Stuart to run into. In the first half Abbots didn’t test this at all, but in the second half Stuart found that the central defenders were almost as fast as him. He really needed to probe the whole of the back line to find their weak link, but Abbots only started to do this in the second half.

Abbots had two good chances in the second half. On one of these, Stuart did get clear of the defence from the left and on another Matthew fired in a great shot from outside of the goal area which clipped the cross-bar.

There was some great defensive play by Abbots right across the back line, and Andrew was excellent in goal. Despite the strength of the opposition, Mark managed to make a number of threatening runs down the right in the first half, but overall the man of the match award went to Peter for his hard fought defensive play, firstly in midfield and then in the centre of defence.