A tough opening fixture

A beautiful September day marked the start of the 2020/21 season with a tough first fixture against Bushey Rangers who could well turn out to be divisional winner contenders, in our first league game since 19th January 2020.

Although Bushey were in our division last season, we didn't get to play them home or away so they were very much unknown quantities today.

South have worked hard in pre-season, completing 10 weeks of training and having played 4 friendlies, the last of which was against Everett Rovers from Div1 of the WHYL on Thursday night. This game was expected to be tough given the difference in divisional status, but it also resulted in several South injuries, not least of which was Archie, our Captain who was then unable to play against Bushey, with several other players carrying knocks and bruises too which limited their involvement.

The flip side though, is that these injury issues created opportunities for others to step up and in a tight game, Charlie took full advantage of George's corner to the back post and scored with his first touch of the game to up South 1-0 up, when he came on halfway through the 1st half. Bushey always looked dangerous on the break and they equalised 7 minutes later after a communication mix up at the back, which was disappointing, having played so well to soak up the Bushey attacks in an evenly contested 1st half.

The second half was tricky for South as we struggled to play our passing game as the injury toll mounted up, resulting in too much panic-long-ball football when clearing our lines. Without the strength to win and hold up the 1st and 2nd balls in the middle third, it meant that we conceded possession too easily and the pressure started to build as the game went on. Bushey hit the frame of the goal twice in the 2nd half, Harrison made a string of brave and dynamic saves and the defence worked hard to snuff out the rest of the Bushey chances. South could have snatched a winner in the last 5 minutes, but it would have been a 'mugging' and so on balance South were perhaps a touch lucky with a draw, but with a full strength team available I'm sure we would have had more options to go on and win that game. Let's look forward to the return fixture when we hope to have a few more tricks up our sleeves! Next week's opposition is Edmonton Rangers, another new team to this division.