Rams 2 Burnham Whites 3
The Rams lined up against their arch rivals Burnham Whites for the first of FOUR meetings this season. The Whites have been in fine form this season and are undefeated, the Rams with an astonishing unbeaten home record stretching back almost 2 years!!!
The early morning news was not good for the Rams manager, losing 2 players before a ball had even been kicked. As the match kicked off the heavens opened, the rain once again drove in sideways with the conditions some of the worst the lads have ever played in! Most of the die hard supporters took what little shelter they could in the trees!
It was the away side that opened the scoring after the Rams had failed to clear thier lines from a corner, a scramble took place in the box unfortunately no one from the home side could clear the ball with any real distance. The ball eventually fell to a Burnham player who poked it into the bottom corner, 0-1. The Rams though are no pushover and were not going to go down without a fight, after some great passages of play, the boys passed and moved the ball brilliantly through Tom, Arran, James, Corey before the latter fired the ball home to level the scores, 1-1.
The Rams continued to press and create the better of the chances but once again it was the away side that took the lead on the counter attack with our defence caught out of position, Callum in the SYCOB goal had little chance to make the save 1-2.
A quickly taken corner to Tom Scott on the corner of the area was curled superbly into the top corner for easily the goal of the game, 2-2. Again the Rams dominated in search of the winner but were undone once again, the defenders caught ball watching and midfielders not tracking the opposition back left Callum exposed in goal, 2-3. The boys in Red & White tried in vain to get back on level terms once again but time was against them, the final whistle blew with the game ending 3-2 to the visitors.
Plenty of positives to be taken from the game though, we undoubtedly looked the better team, kept possession well, Ben Hillier came on and played fantastically and James Heady was inspirational with a man of the match performance. However we had the chances to put the game beyond Burnham and need to keep our concentration throughout the game whilst defending as well as attacking.
All of the boys deserve credit for the performance they put in. Rarely a pass went astray from Jamie and Ollie at the back right through to Arran up front.
For all you stat lovers out there I have trawled through the history books to find out when the last time the Rams lost at home - It was the 9th December 2007!