US Portsmouth Reserves 2-3 Sholing Reserves

Scorers : Cain Prentice 2 (1 pen), Demetri Bernard (pen)

Date : 23 August 2014 - Wyvern Shield Group C

Sholing : Rory Anderson, Liam Golding, Jess Walklin, Callum Parker, Lewis Fear, Owen Roundell, Demetri Bernard, Dan Dove, Cain Prentice, Macaully Smith, Josh West.  Subs : Ryan Dawson, Sean Tollervey, Alex Papadopoulos

We played our first Wyvern Shield group game on saturday in a competition that we were runners up in last season. Only 4 of the starting 11 from Wednesday v Winchester City were available for this game and the conditions were not ideal with a strong wind across the 4G pitch which was small in size making the game appear to be very condensed.
 
However we soon raced in to a 2 goal lead both from penalties . The first after 8 minutes when the strong run of Cain Prentice finished with him being upended in the area. Cain picked himself up to calmly slot the penalty away. On 17 minutes a goalmouth scramble ended with the opposing centre half handling the ball in the 6 yard box and this time, Demetri Bernard slotted away our second penalty similarly taken to the first. We scored again on 33 minutes, a superb 4 pass move from back to front involved Callum Parker playing an excellent pass into Cain Prentice who unleashed an unstoppable shot from just inside the area giving the home keeper no chance. HT 0-3
 
We came in 3-0 up at half time without ever having having had to play well and with Rory Anderson in goal having very little to do in the whole half. Unfortunately our second half performance was surprisingly below that of the first half with us continually failing to play a simple pass and wishing to take 10 touches when 1 or 2 would have been far easier and effective.
 
Consequently we allowed our hard working opposition back in the game with goals on 51 and 60 minutes, both leaving Rory Anderson with no chance, making the remainder of the game very difficult for ourselves in a game which frankly we could and should have won by a lot more without taking any credit away from our industrious opponents.
 
We still had more possession in the second half than the home team but still failed to use this to our advantage as our opponents searched for an equaliser. We did eventually create 3 excellent chances with Demetri Bernard shooting wide and the opposition keeper making point blank saves with his feet from both Liam Golding and Macaully Smith. FT 2-3
 
"Although very pleased to win our first Wyvern Shield group game we failed to get anywhere near reaching the level of performance achieved on wednesday night versus a very strong Winchester team. We didnt get any consistency in our passing or play "simple" football everything was trying to be too difficult or take too many touches. Possibly the speed at which we raced into a 3 goal lead made the boys believe the game was to be easy and consequently they played well within their comfort zone however hopefully they will learn that no game is easy and we must play at a good tempo for the full 90 minutes and not 30 minutes. We hope to get back to the standards we set v Winchester City when we entertain Moneyfields in another Wyvern Group game on Wednesday night kick off 7.45 which will prove to be another competitive encounter" - Mark Stupple