Lack of chances costs the Crows dear.
They say a Leopard never changes its spots and despite changing their manager and all but two of last season's squad, the same could be said for our visitors on Saturday, AFC Croydon Athletic FC. To say they stretched the Laws of the Game to their breaking point would not be an inaccurate assessment and if any of you saw the away game at their ground last season will understand and know what I'm saying.
However, to say that's what cost us the game would also be an inaccurate statement, over the whole game I don't think anyone can really argue they didn't deserve the win and therefore, the three points. Whilst we had a large slice of the possession in the first 45 minutes, apart from an excellent shot from Muggeridge which rebounded off the crossbar early on, we didn't really create much else, although the first 30 minutes of the game was mainly free kick after free kick to us as our visitors tried to get away with anything they could in front of referee Leigh Judd.
Even though he booked the first of their players after only 8 minutes, he then proceeded to talk to any further perpetrators, along with their captain, rather than doing anything about it, therefore, the first half never really flowed very well at all. To add insult to injury, Xavier who received the next yellow card for hacking down Biddlecombe by the dugouts in the 27th minute, scored the opening goal of the game only a minute later, his downward header, which I'm personally not sure he meant, bounced high over the head of debutant 'keeper Burbridge and into the far corner of the net, 1-0 to the visitors.
For the rest of the half the Crows tried to get back in to the match but our passing wasn't as good as it has been, our movement seemed a bit sluggish and ponderous which meant the opposition had time to close us down and put pressure on us whenever we had the ball, hence in the end, too many long hopeful balls were sent up to Attwood for him to fight for against a resolute defender in Harwood and the rest of his defensive colleagues.
At the half time interval it was still 1-0 to them so the next goal, which is usually the case in such situations, was going to be very critical, however, our visitors must have thought that as well and came out of the blocks very quickly and put us under some early pressure, so much so that Walder received a yellow card after only 2 minutes.
The Crows started to get back in to the game but still found it hard to create any clear chances, Burnett in the Rams goal was hardly troubled in the second 45 minutes, so well protected was he by his defensive unit. Unfortunately, for the Crows, it was Mufula who scored the second goal of the game, putting them 2-0 up after 59 minutes, the forward had broken free of the Crows defensive and from his shot Burbridge pulled off an excellent save, unfortunately, the rebound went back to Mufula who had the easy task of putting the ball away for 2-0.
The game became a bit more end to end after the second goal but it was the Rams who had the better chances and Burbridge had to be at his best to keep the visitors out. As normal these days in the second half, substitutions came in to play and the rhythm of the game was lost again, in the 67th minute Xavier went off to be replaced by Murray-Price for the Rams and Butler went off for the Crows to be replaced by Crabb and Biddlecombe went off with Carrington coming on as the Crows made a double substitution.
The visitors still looked the more likely to score though as the half wore on and in the 82nd minute, Muggeridge went off to be replaced by Clarke as the Crows rolled the dice one last time. The did score in the end from the penalty spot, Carrington was fouled in the area by substitute Dan Boateng and he was subsequently booked, Attwood took responsibility and scored to make it 2-1 to AFC Croydon Athletic.
The visitors calmed the game down and prevented the Crows from creating another chance and the match finished 2-1 to them and they wandered back home to Croydon with all three points. The sponsors Man of the Match for the Crows was awarded by Ian Hunt of match sponsors H & H Produce to Tom Boddy, which may give some indication as to which team had most goalmouth threat, especially in the second half.