Another hot day at the huge PSA pitch. We obviously were not fully awake yet since we conceded a very fast goal in the second minute, due to some poor clearance of both midfields and defence. The spectre of some serious punishment was looking over our heads. Luckily, it gave us a good shock and we started to roll out our game. Some good composure from the starting eleven, with good support from the bench, helped us to quickly come back into the game and score our first goal within ten minutes. This was built by a quick counter-attack on the left flank with Yves-Marie squaring to Christophe for a well deserved equaliser. Then we started to put our firm grip on the game creating more opportunities than our opponents although on some occasions, we were second best in terms of challenging the ball. In another one of numerous counter-attacks, at the half-hour mark, Christophe doubled our score (and his tally at the same time), to give us the lead. We could and should have doubled or even trebled that lead if not for the lack of accuracy from our midfields and strikers. On three or four occasions, there were one on one occasions with the Hotspursâ?? keeper, Andy, but we failed to convert. On a couple of times, we were even helped by Andy with some poor clearances, but no improvement on our score line. This was quite disappointing, since the feeling was that weâ??ll pay for these failed opportunities at the end of the game. In the meantime, Hotspurs had some descent chances with the ever-dangerous Esad in front, but not as clear as ours. Still, at the stroke of half-time, an innocuous corner was badly defended by us and two of the Hotspursâ?? players pushed the ball into our net. Half-time score: 2-2.

 

Despite the disappointment of not scoring more goals during this half, we could feel that we could get our first point(s) of this new campaign today. This was going to be proven wrong, once again. In this second half, we played some more good passing football, without converting any chances. Then, like our International team in the mid-week Euro qualifier, we were going to be denied the points by a goal resulting from one of the few occasions that Hotspurs had against us, and here we are running after the score. That goal occurred 15 minutes from the end, and five minutes after one of the Hotspursâ?? player got sent off, for head butt (it seems like Zidane has got a lot of copycats nowadays). Even with numerical advantage, increasing pressure on our opponents, obvious tiredness of their players (certainly all looking forward to the beers after the game), and despite the Gaulois playing good football until the Hotspursâ?? penalty box, the momentum always stopped there, and we were always shy of either shooting or taking the risk in entering the box and confronting our opponents. End result was a disappointing 3-2 defeat for us, however, congratulations for an ever-battling and well spirited Hotspurs team. Just wondering if your 3-4 Scottish recruits did not bring any of these bad vibes from the France-Scotland game in Paris. Looking forward to playing you again later in the course of the season. As for us, more shooting practice is required, but this will come. Be patient.