B Vs Swindon

After Wales went into their lockdown earlier than us, Swindon was the venue of today’s venture – helping us out by filling in the fixture gap. The morning was in parts very wet and miserable ……oh, and the weather wasn’t great either.

For Coach Harris the hard work started at 8:45am as his little Fiesta turned into Dial-a-Ride when he travelled with both Coach Wixey & Tony (photographer) to the game. To his relief, it was only a 50 minute journey. 

With the rain continue to pour, the thing that did brighten our mood was seeing all twelve of our squad together for the first time this season. A quick change in the corridor and a wet walk over to the pitch, the side set about getting themselves warmed-up for the game. 

In what is seeming to be a typical thing for this team so far, Gloucester started the slower of the teams. Swindon quickly take a lead after an attack down the rights skips passed 3 ‘dangly leg’ tackles and a half-hearted clearance rebounds into the Swindon forward and skims into the bottom corner. 

Within minutes, however, Gloucester did find a response. Harvey’s clearance landed for Hill to pass onto Jonny. His touch towards goal opened up for a lovely finish round the keeper and into the far corner.

Swindon capitalised on a poor goal kick when Beaumont skipped past a defender and slotted home nicely. This was the pattern for the rest of the half where Gloucester struggled to get the ball down and play some football and Swindon wanted the ball far more. Two quick goals just before half time for the home team meant that the visitors had some work to do going into the second half. 

The half started with Gloucester as the stronger. Gladding had now stepped up and was involved in a number of chances – including another for Jonny which was saved by the keeper. 

The same combination got Gloucester back in the game, when work on the left landed with Gladding. His ball in landed at Jonny’s feet and he duly slotted under the keeper. 

With the pressure continuing, a great corner crossed in by Clarke was met by the head of Gladding making it one goal to the good for Swindon now.

Sadly things were made slightly harder when a penalty was given away to the homesters and Beaumont again stepped up to slot home. The two-goal lead didn’t last long when a cross into the box found its way out to Giddy on the edge of the box. A lovely first touch and a half-volley in to the touch corner saw one of the goals of the day and put us within reach once again.

Again, with one of their few attacks of the second half, Swindon gained a corner. From the resulting kick, the Yellows seemed to be static and allowed for the ball to be headed in softly at the back post. 

The last decent effort in this goal-fest of a game saw Aitchenson in goal gain an assist for himself. His kick over the top of the Swindon defence saw Jonny take the ball around the defender and subsequent goalkeeper to slot in from 1 yard.

This was definitely a game of two halves and we are seemingly getting to the point now where we need to look at ourselves a little more and our attitude at the start of games. The boys did well to respond in the second half, but it was work that shouldn’t need to happen in the first place. 

On a positive, I must thank the support yesterday. To stand there in that cold and wet weather takes some doing sometimes – especially when there’s a warm clubhouse with coffee on the same grounds 🙂

Gloucester: Aitchenson, Liggett, Harvey, Saunders, Lucas, Gladding, Giddy, Hill, Neate, Hardcastle, Clarke & Jonny