Statistics don't lie, do they?

Sadly, like the Stock Exchange, the past is no guarantee of future performance and we came a cropper against a well organised and youthful side.

With several players unavailable for the trip to North Berwick (holidays, injuries, shopping…) the line-up was tweaked to move McNally into defence and Foulds to the heart of Midfield. For 20 minutes it looked like this was going to work out fantastically, with Foulds controlling the centre of the pitch and the width of our attack giving them a lot of problems down both flanks. Great movement from Dodkin up front created space for Foulds to thread through a pass. His shot was saved but Dodkin latched on to the rebound and roofed the ball into the net to open the scoring.

Unfortunately that was when our mix-and-match line-up began to wear a bit thin. Despite having done almost nothing all season, Sole decided (or rather, his ankle decided) that 20 minutes was enough for him and he went off for a rest. Then we started to make a few unforced errors and gave them too much of the ball. We held off until just before half time when pressure resulted in an unmarked man at the back post deflecting in the equaliser.

Despite this we were fairly happy at half-time, feeling that we had created a few chances to score and had good possession, so what could go wrong?

Well… the second half was uphill (literally) and into the wind, so they bombarded us with aerials and unleashed the young pups to nip our heels at every opportunity. McNally tried to force a clearance through an array of forwards but only managed to give them possession and they passed the ball well between them to score and take the lead 2-1. Clearing the ball off the line shortly afterwards perhaps made up for his mistake, but this only delayed the next goal.

Their third was a good strike from a corner, but to be honest, we should have had more cover on the post (yes, he knows). The fourth came shortly before the end and was a reverse stick shot that again probably should have been saved.

3 clear goals doesn't reflect the balance of play but they deserved to win and we didn't build up enough possession to carve out any good opportunities in the second half. That's why they are top of the league and we aren't.

The most encouraging aspects were the way we moved the ball around in the first half and the performances of Dodkin, Foulds and Sole (albeit cut short by injury). We were again helped out by Iain O who performed well at left-back, but we need to get an established line-up so we can grow in confidence and consistency.