Pelham Taste Defeat In Final Pre Season Friendly

Casuals and Pelham slipped to their first defeat of the season as they were beaten 4-2 by Apollo FC! The story of Pelhams pre season continued with a squad of 16 in fact turning out to be a squad of 13 as there were 3 more no shows, which would play a big part in the way the game went later on! The first half was a fairly even affair, with Apollo FC having much more of the ball and possession, with Pelham happy to sit back and try to hit them on the counter with the runs of Steve Callan, Tim Shaw and Jamie Richards in behind! In the first 30 minutes there wasn't too many chances for either team and hotbed much to shout about! However just after the half hour mark the deadlock was broken! Steve Callan picked up the ball on the left and played it inside for Lee Simper, some good footwork from Lee saw him break into the box and slot past the Apollo FC keeper, 1-0 to Pelham! Pelham knew they needed to stay switched on as a young fresh Apollo side would want to bounce back straight away! That didn't happen right away but they did hit back soon, a deflected shot on the edge of the Pelham box wrongfooted the Monk and went into the near corner of the Pelham net, 1-1. With 10 minutes left of the half a draw at the break was probabaly fair, however the scoring wasn't finished yet! The Monk took a goalkick quickly with 5 minutes left of the half and looked to put Tim Shaw in behind early! The Apollo defended fluffed his lines on this occasion, with Shaw making the most of it and poking the ball past the keeper, 2-1 to Pelham and that's how it stayed at the half! Pelham knew they would be in for a tough second half, with a young Apollo side bound to have fresher legs as the game went on, and it showed in due course! The game went level about 15 minute into the second half, this time a good initial save from the Monk was palmed out, only for an Apollo player to react quicker and another deflection took the ball into the net 2-2. Pelham started to tire even more, and could have done with the extra 3 bodies! Apollo took the lead for the first time with around 20 minutes left, another shot from the Apollo striker was saved well by the Monk, only for Apollo's striker to react quicker than the defence and pass the ball in to make it 3-2! At this point Pelham decided to go for broke and throw everything at the game! They moved to a back 3 and chucked everyone forward! They did create a couple of opportunities but couldn't find the finish in the final third! Right at the death Apollo got a 4th goal as Pelham piled everyone forward, and it was a duplicate of the third goal, with Apollo reacting quicker and looking sharper than Pelham! 4-2 is how it finished and Pelham tasted defeat for the first time!