League: Reading Wildcats 2’s 10 – 8 Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes let this winnable game slip away through lots of small individual errors that collectively made the difference. For every great play, including two potential goals of the season from man-of-the-match Matt Sawyer, someone would make a basic error that either gifted the ball back to Reading, or gave them an open look on our goal.

Matt’s two goals were super. First was a three-way passing interchange that scythed a hole through the middle of the Reading defence. Matt, Corey and Rhys combined with three slick passes to leave Matt with an unmissable shot from close range. However his second goal came from somewhere so deep in his locker, not even he knew it was there. He found himself behind goal with the ball. Everyone thought Matt would pass the ball on and move back into midfield . He had other ideas. He darted inside his defender and slammed in a crease dive goal. Wonderful stuff.

Others in MK green scored some good goals also, including two from Bobbie on debut after transferring from the Welwyn club. But alas, we had periods where we could not make three passes without throwing it away or dropping a simple catch. We were second to most ground balls, and Reading were the faster team in transition. Defence was for the most part solid, but a few lapses in concentration or miss-communication gave Reading the time and space to shoot and they had more players who could ping a corner than MK. Pat in the MK goal made a number of great saves as always, but he can’t save everything.

The bottom line was if we could of kept a bit more possession at key times we would of worked a high percentage shot. Most Reading attacks ended with some kind of shot, too many MK attacks ended with a turnover.

Flags (cup) next Saturday 2pm on the home field at Stantonbury with Brighton Panthers the visitors.

Game Stats

10:8
MK Goals:
Toby Jeffries x 2
Rob ‘Bobbie’ Ingham Clark x 2
Matt Sawyer x 2
Corey Jamieson
Jack Gambrill

MK Man-to-the-Match: Matt Sawyer

MK D-of the-Day: Jack Gambrill, for a ridiculous attempt at a ‘behind the back’ pass that lead to another turnover