Norsemen (a) 9/9/23

With summer drawing to a close, football was back for Old Stationers. However, the sun had decided to make one last meaningful appearance and baked down on North London for the season opener against Norsemen. 32 degrees at kick off made very unpleasant playing conditions, but nevertheless football was back and we got underway.

With a couple of key injuries and absentees, it was encouraging to see a couple of our newer additions starting well as we dominated the first half hour of the game. A couple of really good chances fell our way but some predictable rustiness was probably on show as we failed to take any of them. 0-0 at half time and we were unfortunate to not be ahead.

The second half started pretty evenly with another golden chance falling our way, but the Norsemen keeper made another good save to deny a 1 on 1. We went behind around the hour mark after a decent strike from oppo player following a corner clearance. The opposition hit quickly again after we failed to make the most of an indirect free kick and we were suddenly 2 down. At this point we were pretty much down to bare 11 with the heat and injuries taking their toll, and it looked it on the pitch as we struggled to find the energy to chase the game having gone behind. A third goal for Norsemen went in, in quite comical fashion, and despite a lateish bundled home goal from Elsey we couldn't apply enough pressure to threaten a comeback. 3-1 the finish.

We shouldn't be too disappointed with the result as we created lots of chances and could of taken much more from the game. We go again next weekend at home to Merton.