An Inconsistent Truth

Last week, we just got the better of Dunstable (away). Today, we faced the return fixture. We knew to expect a tough game, with the visitors fired up for revenge.

We were missing Fred & David (away) and, with Luke on the sidelines (ligament injury), we had just enough for a full team plus one sub.

We haven't played much at Mowsbury this year so far and apparently the pitch needed some attention pre-kickoff. Derek attended to it with a borrowed spade. The lender of the spade, although he was obviously right there, apparently couldn't do the job till Monday at the earliest.

Sandra also ordered some goal-mouth trampling (polo style), and after the referee allowed some extra time pre-kickoff (perhaps to allow more defrosting of the pitch) we were off.

It was instantly obvious that Dunstable were really up for the game. Although Brickhill had an early chance when Elijah short over, it was no great surprise when the visitors scored from a useful cross after 6 minutes. What was surprising was that we did not fall further behind.

Sam C cleared off the line, and Dunstable had many efforts that just finished wide or over the bar, or fell foul of the offside flag.

Meanwhile, we were really struggling and when the break came, we could easily have been 4 or 5 down. So the good news was that the deficit remained a single goal. A couple of times I had to count to make sure the opposition didn't have 12 or 13 players and that we actually were playing a full 11.

In the early part of the second half, the match was more balanced and we equalized when Elijah flicked an excellent ball into Dominic in the box. He appeared to stumble at first, but he recovered and found the net, albeit in off a Dunstable head.

This goal changed the mood of the team and we enjoyed a good spell. Ewan, especially, was battling all over the pitch, with Josh having good pace upfront.

However, when we fell behind again with less than 10 minutes to go, we never looked to be in the game again. Although several of their efforts were stopped by the defence (including some excellent saves by Harry) we actually conceded again from an excellent long range lob which gave the goalkeeper no chance.

Our home record continues to be very weak - all four defeats in this campaign have been at home. The manager was not happy.

Dunstable meanwhile fully deserved the win.

BRICKHILL WANDERERS 1 - 3 DUNSTABLE YOUTH
Dominic (35min)