London Tigers 2 NLCFC 0

The Crickets experienced their first taste of defeat this season, as they lost their semi-final away to premier league side London Tigers. The ridiculously early 10:30am start away in Southall played a large part as the crickets squad was stretched beyond its limits. In future a later start will be requested/demanded when the venue is so far away, although it is still disappointing that we couldn’t muster anything like a full strength team.

The weather conditions also played a part, although it has to be conceded that the gale force winds blew from the same direction, with the same strength throughout the game and was thus equally frustrating to both sides.

The game itself was unsurprisingly one of two halves. NLCFC won the toss and chose, perhaps mistakenly in hindsight, to shoot with the wind. As such most of the football was played in the Tiger's half during this period, although the crickets lack of familiarity with each other led to a disjointedness and lack of penetration in their play. Knowing that first half, wind assisted goals were a must, it was disappointing that the only real chance fell to Wakeford on the half hour as a speculative punt forward ricoched off the right back into the path of NLCFC’s forward.. Controlling it on his chest, Wakeford pushed it into his stride, and let loose from 25 yards. The ball seemed certain to lodge itself in the top left corner when the Tigers keeper athletically took off to his right getting the slightest of touches to clip the ball onto the post. As far as chances went, that was about it for the rest of the half. Burns, Nicholson, Ali and Torres Navva defended stoutly throughout, assisted as always by midfield lynchpin Andy Hale, but the team as a whole couldn’t rise above the awful conditions to generate any of the fluency that has been the mark of the Crickets play so far this season.

The one player who did perhaps stand out was man of the match Luke Buffery. Possessing Giggs-like dribbling at pace, the flying right-winger was able to move the play forward better than any of his slower team-mates. One particular example of this led to the Crickets only other chance of the game. After exchanging passes with Hale and Wakeford, Buffery embarked upon a fearsomely committed charge up to the byline, and, after considering a cross, he then shot for the near post. The Tigers keeper was again up to the job as he turned the ball around the corner of his post.

After 80 minutes the score was 0-0 with neither side producing more than half chances and speculative long shots. The deadlock was broken when the otherwise excellent NLCFC defence became drawn towards the play. The wind carried a cross-field ball from the left all the way to the back post where a surprised, but grateful Tigers attacked finished past Cricket's fine keeper Richard Hall. A similar goal followed soon after as the Crickets strove for an equaliser.

Defeat for the first time, but the team will take heart from the fact that even its most skeletal of sides was in no way disgraced by the third side in the premier league. Nevertheless, winning ways must be returned to soon.