London Titans 1 – 2 Birmingham Blaze – GFSN National League – Sunday 1 March 2009
Off the back of last week’s excellent result and performance against our local rivals, London Falcons there was a confident feeling throughout the squad last Sunday. The only changes from the team that beat the Falcons was Tezza coming in at centre back and Wheeler starting at left back in place of Chris Maughan. As usual, there was a slow start from the Titans as we tried our usual trick of giving the opposition a head start. The first twenty minutes was seen out mainly due to a solid start by the defence, which included a left back role for Tal who came on for the injured Wheeler very early on.
Half way through the first half Blaze earned themselves a corner, it is whipped in too the near post and off the top of Easty’s brand new (£6) hair cut, crashing into the top corner. He claimed it never touched him!!!!
A tactical change midway through the half saw striker Sean and skipper Felts swap places – a role which Sean clearly relished. Titans needed to get through to half time to reorganise and had keeper OJ to thank for a brave 1 on 1 save with his feet to keep the scoreline down to only 0-1
At half time, manager Connell decided to ring the changes. Tezza and Felts started up front, with Scotty coming on for Serge on the right. Miller came on for Matty and slotted in at left back. Unfortunately the second half got off to the worst possible start with Blaze’s new striker Easty stumbling over the ball and placed the ball sweetly past the despairing dive of OJ for his second (own) goal of the game!
The Titans from the past might well have fallen apart, however going 2-0 seemed to spur them on. As the game continued it is fair to say Titans had strong territorial advantage as they pressed to get back into the game.
With 25 minutes remaining Mikey got some space in the right hand channel and sent over a pin point cross on to the head of Felts, who couldn’t miss and made it 1-2.
As the second half progressed Thomas and Sean both flashed shots wide of the post, with Mikey and Matty (who came back on for the injured Tezza) both delivering good quality corners right under the cross bar – causing panic in the Blaze defence. But it all came to nothing and the Titans lost their third league game of the campaign.
Final score London Titans 1 Birmingham Blaze 2
Special mentions today should go to Sean for tireless running and Tezza for stepping in at centre back and making it look easy. There were many positives to take from the game but unfortunately the result was not one of them. Everyone who played should take comfort in the fact we gave a side that will almost certainly finish near the top, a good run for their money.