Monday 29th June, 2009
Harry's FC International 0 Burger King 7
Team
Carlowe
Heffernan
Leach
Glasgow
Atkinson
Dickens
Marler
Thorbury
Atterbury
Doherty
Naj
Perhaps the worst ever performance at Kings, brought with it the heaviest ever defeat. The passion and commitment of the previous week slowly evaporated as Harry's found their opponents of a different quality and disillusioned heads dropped as the game went on.
It certainly didn't start out that way. Burger King boasting 5 full internationals as well as at least 2 former internationals found the early energy of Harry's a little tough to come to terms with quickly. With chances befalling a number of Harry's players, it was due to wayward shots and some solid goalkeeping that denied the boys in sky blue taking a deserved early lead.
But as often the case in the past the failure to covert was to get penalised, and a long kick from the Burger King defence left Heffernan and Leach flatfooted while the opposing forward made no mistake in converting Burger King's first real chance. Harry's didn't plan to go down without a fight and were still full of running although clear cut chances were starting to become few and far between. A lack of marking by Atkinson from a Burger King free kick led to a second goal and shortly before half time another case of losing ones marker made it a cruel 3-0 scoreline against Harry's.
Manager Atterbury, whose team talk the prior week had had the right effect, failed to do so again, as Harry's looked well beaten almost from the start of the second half. The introduction of Naj provided no extra impetus for the team, and a couple of lacsadaisical passes presented Burger King with simple chances which they firmly took. The longer the half wore on, the harder it was on the players. A depleted squad, worsened further by the loss of Thorbury at half time, looked shell shocked and worn and on the final whistle there only came relief.
The question is how to pick the team up from this. But with a fortnight's gap and hopefully the return of some players, Harry's will quickly get back on track in this most difficult league.
