The Vets suffered defeat in their first game of 2016. A full strength 14 were chosen from the 21 available players for the trip to Blunham. Manager Dastardly Aldrich said “the selection was tough on the magnificent 7, particularly Banksy who scored our only 2 goals from the bench in our last game, reffed the first 15 minutes, cooked the chips, made the tea and collected the subs. Some of the others will have to go out on loan in the January window – Chairman Al for example needs game time, and I’ve had an enquiry from Brendan Walkden to see if he will make a switch to Stotfold”
Blunham started the match well, it was 3 minutes before Knebworth got a touch of the ball. But Knebworth took the lead when Woody found space to finish well. It should have been 2, when a goal kick from Tony was caught by an extreme gust of wind and Woody was 1 on 1 with the keeper. He missed and his mood descended from there.
A scrappy equalizer made it 1-1 at half time. Jono had to be taken off after injuring his foot tripping over a water bottle. The giant Irishman looks out of place at centre half, left midfield and striker and after the game Mutley Hobbs said “I’m trying to build a team around Jono, but I can’t find a position where he can play, I’ve pencilled him in for a stint in goal next time Tony is away. I’m also concerned about the coaching my son gets from Jono in the under 6s – he keeps lining up water bottles in the garden and kicking them against the wall”
Substitutes Rob, Barney and Martyn gave Knebworth a bit of extra zip in the second half. But some “interesting” defending cost Knebworth sloppy goals. Blunham sat deep, and Knebworth were unable to break them down. A strong ref was forced to intervene and remove handbags from the field of play on a couple of occasions. Knebworth dominated territory throughout, Blunham held strong and repelled everything Knebworth could muster.
Post match, under pressure manager Aldirch said “we are not far off being a great team, if we could just create more chances, finish more chances and stop giving away silly goals we’d be a much better side”. But don’t worry we will be top of the league in May, unfortunately the rest of the league will have 12 games in hand.”
