The Dons signed off 2016 with an abject performance against their old rivals/ friends from Milford & Witley, who now sit second in the table despite having had their bottoms spanked by us just a month before. As with our other ‘below par’ performance of the season against Odiham, I felt we were a bit too lethargic/ relaxed during the warm up, perhaps over-confident after consecutive wins against Milford during the course of the year. Milford, on the other hand, buoyed by some new signings, were champing at the bit to get some revenge against us and I think their extra desire made the difference in the end.

I think there were a few factors that did for us on Sunday- some of them completely out of our hands; we hadn’t played for a month whereas they had played the last two weeks so they were inevitably sharper, and we were always going to miss our two central midfielders, who have played together all season. That is to take nothing away from Ross and James, but you cannot expect a team to function without its regular midfield, particularly when Milford played three in the middle. The pitch was also particularly heavy- same for both sides- but we are spoilt at Badger Park, with its excellent drainage and porn star-esque lack of bush.

In terms of our performance, I felt that we lacked organisation out on the pitch; the back four worked their socks off but were quite often being dragged all over the place and the ‘unit’ we had discussed before the game seemed fragile. Once Jim went off, this issue was exacerbated, particularly in terms of moving up the pitch when we had possession. I wish I had put a third midfielder in there to help the boys- Rusty and Pateman just had too much time in there, and that was my fault for not seeing it. Both their goals came from us giving away possession cheaply in our own third, and then getting punished- to a man we are better than that.

Up top, Nick and Coss fed off scraps all morning, and both could have had a couple of goals on another day, creating chances out of nothing. Coss’s overhead kick was ridiculous and would have started a riot had it gone in. At the other end, Dave tipped one on to the crossbar following a wicked deflection just before half time, which kept us in it, and then made a world-class save to keep the score to two, diving low to his right at point blank.

It just wasn’t our day, and although everyone worked hard, Milford just had that extra ounce of oomph on the day and will enjoy the local bragging rights for the rest of the season.