Well, how do I justify dragging my aching body down to Worthing to see my beloved Dons taken down tamely by a 'run of the mill' team? Thankfully the pitch was even, so no BMX tricks could be accomplished by the ref before the game.
Kick off was delayed by 10 minutes, courtesy of a broken down fan coach, which only got 500 metres before halting for an hour for a replacement. Kick off started, and from the first touch, the middle five were apparent, making the midfield look clogged.
I feel that this was the downfall to the game, which was mainly played in midfield, where balls were played width-ways, not allowing attacks to be built up; making Sheerin look subdued as he struggled to be fed the balls. A fairly non-event first half showed the weakness in the Dons play: two fine crosses in from the right failed to be met by anyone on the far post because... we only had one upfront. Sullivan was used sparingly, but when done so, he created a few half chances that failed to intimidate the Withdean back four.
Second half saw the game turn on its head, as the referee, who must have received some abysmal GCSE results decided to take it out on the Yellow Blue Army. His inconsistency was highly apparent, as Sullivan was slide-tackled by two players simultaneously, without any free kick awarded, whereas they were awarded two penalties.
Shimmel again, had a blinder, and was faultless. He saved one penalty and dived the correct way for the second, only for it to bounce off his glove into the net. I feel that with Cooper set to return on Saturday, and Eames to give the team a re-jig to find a winning way, coupled with any fair referee may produce a win.
As you may be able to tell, I am not too pleased with the standard shown at away games so far, but feel that an experienced referee, or a referee with a good reputation should be appointed for these grand fixtures. In my eyes, I fail to see how a 16 year old had the ability and technical nous to fairly govern that match.
Let’s hold our heads up, and look forward to seeing our boys at fortress Kingsmeadow.