We played against a swirling wind in the first half and this made control and passing difficult. We did however get the ball in the net after 4 minutes when following a foul on Craig Langdon Mika Chunuonsee knocked the ball forward to Daniel Lancey and 'scored' from his return pass. Unfortunately the ref gave a free kick for hand ball against Mika but his shot from the edge of the area was too strong for Neil Collins in goal. ENTO replied with a period of keep ball where without going anywhere in particular they knocked the ball around keeping the ball and trying to frustrate us. From the sequence of play they eventually won a corner but the cross was too long and drifted out for a goal kick. Craig Langdon gave chase to a long ball from Justin Williams and put the ENTO defence under pressure winning us a throw near the corner flag. From it however ENTO won a free kick which they played forward to Richard Ryan who laid the ball into the path of another ENTO player but he dragged his shot wide. We were restricting ENTO to shooting from outside the box and despite the wind in their favour most of the shots were at Rory McCreesh who handled them cleanly. He was however forced into a good save tipping a Richard Ryan shot over the crossbar to concede a corner. Flushed by his success on Tuesday Scott McCoubrey was happy to shoot on sight and he had several efforts on target in the first half but none extended Neil Collins in goal. 

We went behind on 23 minutes when a long ball out to the left wing was picked up by their 11 Anthony Taylor who cut inside a drilled a low cross into the box 10 Jon Phillips timed his run and guided the ball into the top corner from 8 yards giving Rory no chance. We responded positively with Daniel Lancey and Shaun Best combining down the right but the final cross into the box was too long and any chance was lost. On the half hour Corey Thomas misplaced a pass and ENTO played it wide right Richard Ryan was waiting on the cross but he shot wide from a good position. Just before the break the ball was played forward to Scott McCoubrey who laid the ball into Carl Payne's path, Carl shot first time from 30 yards but it was straight at the keeper.

We hadn't switched on for the second half and ENTO attacked down the right and with us wide open at the back Justin Williams got across to concede a corner which we cleared. A good ball forward found Scott McCoubrey in space and he made ground before shooting but again it was at the keeper who cleared the ball up to Carl Evans, he won the header and found Scott but he was given offside and the chance went. Daniel Lancey won the ball wide left, cut in and with no one closing him down he shot but the ball went just wide. Just after the hour ENTO attacked down the left and crossed the ball into the six yard box, Rory managed to punch the ball away and clear. ENTO attacked again forcing several corners and being awarded several fee kicks but the defence stood up well to the challenge. With just over 10 minutes to go an ENTO corner was cleared to Scott who passed it to Shaun Best then on to Corey Thomas whose cross into the area was just cut out with Scott waiting. The wind was now a lot stronger highlighted by Daniel Lancey who played the ball forward from 40 yards but it sailed over the crossbar without troubling anyone. 

With 7 minutes to go it looked as though ENTO had made the game safe when a through ball found Richard Ryan wide left he cut inside and shot across Rory into the far corner of the net. However a minute later we were awarded a free kick 25 yards out on the left touchline, Mika took it and it sailed over everyone into the top corner to give us some hope. We pushed Carl Evans forward looking to get an equaliser, again Scott hit the keeper from 25 yards and a Remi Whitelock corner hit the post before going behind for a goal kick. Right on time from yet another Lido free kick Neil Collins dropped the ball but managed to dive on it before we could take advantage. One disappointing feature was that the ref blew up on 46 minutes 30 seconds on my watch while most of our amateur timekeepers were around the same. There were 5 substitutions in the second half besides the time wasting that occurred so we were possibly denied a couple more minutes to put pressure on the home side.

Lido side:
Rory McCreesh, Rhys Williams. Corey Thomas, Carl Evans' Justin Williams, Carl Payne, Shaun Best, Mika Chunuonsee, Craig Langdon, Scott McCoubrey, Daniel Lancey.

Subs:
12 Remi Whitelock for Shaun Best 80
14 Adam Carpenter for Craig Langdon 58
15 James McEvoy
16 Vince Lewis

Att: 40

Match Report by Peter Reynolds

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