Match Report
Ryman League: Division One South
 Horsham YMCA 0 |
 Metropolitain Police Abbey 45 Finn 60 |
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Source: Allan Norbury, West Sussex County Times |
JOHN Suter had to contend with supporter dissent for the first time at YM, as a further reality of playing in a higher league hit home.
YM were confident of a win against Metropolitan Police, a side five places and four points adrift of Suter's team at the start of play, and went with an adventurous 4-3-3 formation.
But when the manager replaced the ineffective Steve Davies with Matt Russell, a dissenting voice from the crowd blasted the move - perhaps unaware YM played three up top.
The incident summed up a disappointing day for the home side, who hope to beat sides with them in the bottom half of the table.
A smart finish from Ben Abbey on the stroke of half time and a 60th minute strike from Toby Finn secured the points for the visitors,although two second half opportunities could have earned a draw for YM.
Suter said: "It is a hugely disappointing day.
"I really thought we could get three points looking a recent performances, but we haven't emulated those.
"I even had heckling from the crowd - I don't really understand what he was criticising. Davies had not done anything and I felt we had enough attacking players out there, we played 4-3-3 until the last 20 minutes. "It was a very important game to win, now they are only a point behind and have four games in hand on us."
The Met looked sharper throughout and created two chances in the opening three minutes, Stuart Harte and Finn missed the target.
It was the visitors who posed the most questions and displayed more poise on the ball, winger Finn constantly switched flanks and gave Dean Carden a torrid time.
The Met should have been a goal up on 22 minutes, but Craig Brown dragged his chance wide when on-on-one with Dean Ruddy.
Andy Ottley pulled his effort wide after driving at Harte and out of nothing Scott Kirkwood flashed a shot past the post, but YM couldn't impose themselves.
The Met's 45th minute goal came as a result of inexperience from YM. James Evans was going nowhere on the touchline, but after Andy Ottley dived in to win the ball, Evans managed to dig out a cross which was flicked on by Brown and Abbey swivelled well to finish on the penalty spot.
After half time, Suter switched Richard Greenfield and Andy Ottley, almost with immediate dividends. Good midfield work from the impressive Ellis Hooper and Kirkwood released Greenfield on the left, his looping cross was crying out to be attacked but Davies hesitated and was nowhere near making decent contact.
In a fine start to the half, Kirkwood fired in a shot from the edge of the box after more good work from Greenfield, but YM needed to score during this spell.
All of a sudden everything was clicking for the home side, but without a thrust up front. And they were made to pay on the hour.
Carl Hutchings' scuffed pass inside Garden found Finn, who made a hash of the shot, but Ruddy did even worse with the save and the ball bobbled into the empty net.
It was the first time the Met had ventured into YM territory since half time.
"It was a dreadful goal to give away," Suter remarked.
Throwing men forward, YM tried to pick their way through their visitors when the play needed to be stretched. The introduction of Pat Massaro with 20 minutes left saw a spark up front.
Chances came and went, such as a free header for Glen Woodburn, and the pick of the bunch when Massaro elected to round Will Packham from a Russell flick on instead of shooting.
By the time he had composed himself, the defense was back to clear the danger.
Suter said: "In that second half I only looked at one end of the field.
"We huffed and puffed around their goal but didn't make their keeper work very hard.
"We now have a point a game, I read a statistic that teams with .951 points a game or less are relegated, that worries me. We have some very testing games coming up."
Man of the match: Ellis Hooper - tough tackling and composed on the ball.
Magic moment: A tremendous sliding tackle from Nick Levett in the first half, it's a shame his distribution afterwards was so poor.
YM (4-3-3): Ruddy; Garden, Woodburn, M Ottley, Levett; Hooper, White, Kirkwood; A Ottley, Davies (Russell 65), Greenfield (Massaro 72).