After some late pitch drama which saw us move from the still unfit Great Hollands to Edgbarrow, the Pythons lined up to face Rotherfield without Dempsey (still injured from game-week one) and Will (who had other commitments). In better news, Freddie was fit to make his Pinewood debut and Tegwyn had shaken off his week one injury to take his familiar place in the starting XI.

Pinewood started like a team getting to know one another. Rotherfield pushed us back early on and after only a few minutes took the lead when a ball ricocheted around in the penalty box and no defenders took ownership, with the Rotherfield striker pouncing to slot home. 1-0 Rotherfield and the game was barely underway. 10 minutes later, and with Pinewood still trying to grab hold the game, it got worse. Another tentative defensive play saw Pinewood again fail to close down, this time with the Rotherfield midfielder who gathered the ball 20 yards out and hit an unstoppable drive into the top corner of the net. 2-0, and a long 70 minutes in store for the Pythons...

To their credit, the boys rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in. Oli Thompson and Daniel Parikos, arriving late after some school commitments, entered the fray and immediately made an impact. Pinewood began crafting chances with more regularity. Freddie was causing chaos in the Rotherfield defence, turning the centre backs around constantly and narrowly missing when through 1 on 1 more than once. Corners began raining in on the Rotherfield defence too, with Hari nodding just wide from a great deliver from Isaac and Daniel firing wide when outpacing the defensive line on one of his marauding runs. Rotherfield continued to threaten from time to time, and one such occasion saw the Rotherfield forward hit the deck after an innocuous challenge - penalty! Tough to take but given nonetheless. What Rotherfield weren't aware of was Finn's penalty saving record and, yet again, he threw himself to the side and saved the low spot kick. Still 2-1! Rotherfield pushed forward again and Finn went one better than his penalty save with a fabulous one handed diving save from another long range piledriver. Pinewood were struck with disaster as Freddie hobbled off wit ha recurrence of his foot injury, forcing Zabi to move upfront. This nearly caused immediate issues for Rotherfield as Zabi found himself through on goal but his lofted chip hit the bar and bounced clear. Halftime came and 2-0 to Rotherfield was - somehow, still the score line.

Some minor changes at halftime to help the defensive unit were discussed with the coaches, but the message was clear. Josh was sadly also lost to injury which saw Keep going, the breakthrough is coming! The team clearly listened, as after 5 minutes the ball pinged around the Rotherfield area, with three or four shots on target hitting defenders or being clawed off the line by an impressive Rotherfield keeper. The game continued in the same vein for the next 20 minutes, with Pinewood looking very dangerous for periods but Rotherfield threatening too, before a throw in was mis-cured by the Rotherfield defender straight to Oli Thompson who leathered an unstoppable drive into the far side netter to open his account for the season. 2-1, Game On! Pinewood had their tails up, and pressed forward again, but left space at the back which Rotherfield exploited well, their right winger slipping into the box before being stopped by what looked like a great sliding challenge by Teddy - unfortunately his momentum took him through the player after winning the ball and for the second time in the game, the referee pointed to the spot. This time, with a change of taker and despite a heroic dive by Finn in the right direction, the ball found the very bottom left corner. 3-1 Rotherfield. With 10 minutes left, there was till time for yet another injury blow, with the impressive Isaac coming off with a recurrence of a knee injury. Hopefully Freddie, Josh and Isaac all recover quickly. The final score was 3-1 Rotherfield. A tough one to take on the balance of play.

There was a lot of good to take from the day. Barring two defensive slip-ups, we were the better side over 80 minutes. We might have argued the penalty decisions but in both cases the tackles were a little careless to be making inside the penalty box, and we gave the referee a tough decision to make, so no criticism at all there. This team is still gelling, and soon, we will click and move to a different level. Player of the Match went to Oli, for a typically hard working and tough tackling midfield display. Credit to Hari for a great defensive effort, Benn for doing a great job in the back line and being steady all game long, Finn for some wonderful saves, and Freddie who gave us another dimension in attack before sadly limping off.

Lineup: Finn, Fabio, Josh, Hari, Tegwyn, Sam, Leo, Isaac, Teddy, Zabi, Freddie. Subs: Isaac, Daniel, Oli