The OTs poor run of results so far this season continued on Saturday with another defeat, this time to Old Reptonians. However, many positives can be taken from a match in which we played almost the entire second half with only 9 players and conceded with only 15 minutes left to play.

After a traumatic journey to Merchant Taylor’s School, consisting of train cancellations and heavy traffic, a determined set of OTs arrived (yet again) with only minutes until kick off. After a rushed warm up, we realised the skip had made a mathematical error in squad selection and we found ourselves with only 10 players. No matter – we were determined to put in a performance and get into the oppositions faces from the off. And this is exactly what we did, with Will Bryant forcing an early save from Repton’s keeper. He followed this effort with some bone crunching challenges and physicality that had been missing from our recent displays.

Duncan Elliott, restored to the centre of the park, was comfortably the best midfielder on the pitch. The OT’s defended resolutely, with Tom Dye and Doug Aarvold both imperious in central defence. This was all the more impressive, considering the latter’s Friday night activities. Alex Moxon, at left back, also gave a fine display.

We went into half time all square and feeling confident that we could get a result. We started the 2nd half extremely well and following a fine move, Dixie put Will Bryant through on goal and he was crunched by the geriatric Repton defender. Surely a penalty!? Or not… the referee ruled the player had touched the ball and waved play on. It appeared he had gone through Bryant’s leg to get to the ball and a penalty probably should have been given. Unfortunately, we were dealt a double blow with Will being injured by the challenge and leaving us with 9 players to play the rest of the half.

We played the rest of the game on the back foot and faced wave after wave of Repton attacks. Ed ‘Wall’ Bugge had yet another excellent game and kept us level. With around 20 minutes to go, Dixie muscled his way through to go one on one with their keeper but the keeper did very well and blocked the shot.

As the game progressed, we became more stretched and eventually a flowing move from Repton resulted in them taking the lead. It was a devastating blow but the boys kept their heads up and went in search of an equaliser. However, by throwing men forward we opened up some gaps at the back and a fatigued defence conceded a further two goals in the closing minutes. A 3-0 defeat, but one where the scoreline certainly does not do justice to the performance. We showed determination and played as team. This was our best effort since the cup victory a few weeks back. If we take this spirit into future matches and get our top players back from uni and stag weekends we will surely start getting some wins.

We have a week off this weekend, with the Haileybury match being postponed until the new year. Next match is Saturday 12th in the league against Eton. Let’s have a good turnout for this one and have everyone turn up on time!