Lingers lose ground on promotion places!

Fresh off a win midweek, The Lingers were looking for more of the same but half way through the first half fortunes were about to change.

The Gaffer was required to make a few changes with personnel and playing positions due to injury and illness which saw the return of Aaron Steed being brought in from the Resserves and the return of Nathan Hull, The Lingers failed to control the tempo and as a result were pinned back defending the "Long Ball" of Midhurst.

The Midhurst players not only knew how to play the condition of the pitch but to the officials with every call, shout and objection resulting in The Lingers on the end of a Free Kick or caution.
After a few half chances squandered by Tj Stead and Matt Burroughs, The Lingers found themselves 1-0 down. The referee with a questionable free kick decision on the edge of the box, converted with the aid of a deflection taking the ball away from Tony Jenner in the Lingfield goal. For the rest of the first half, The lingers were starting to dominate the areas of play by pushing towards the Midhurst goal until some slack defending at the back led to a square ball and a tap in at the back post putting The Lingers 2 down at the break.

There were no substitutions from either side during half time, but 10 minutes into the half, Marc Mcevily came on coming back from illness. Maybe he still had a slight head cold as he miss cued a clearance and the Midhurst forward was through, realising his mistake Marc recovered and cleared the danger. Half way through the second half, the game had changed. The Lingers started pressing the high line and getting into the opposition which made them make mistakes. With 70mins played Nathan Hull came on coming back from injury playing up top with Sam Bell. The Gaffer decided to change things up again and it was in the 75th minute when Aaron Stead was brought on from the bench hoping to give The Lingers a boost to get back into the game.

It was with 10 minutes to go and The Lingers continued to apply the pressure when Matt Burroughs delivered the perfect weighted cross for Sam Bell to nodded the ball down onto the waiting and Nathan Hull who the quickest to react to a knock down in the box with a calm finish on the half volley into the far corner to reduce the gap to 2-1.
Midhurst were then rattled as The Lingers piled on the pressure and were pushing for the equaliser unfortunately the referees watch beat Lingfield to the line as The Lingers ran out of time to score the equaliser.

The Lingers remain 6th in the league and will be fighting as they look to bounce back against the inform East Preston on Saturday 5th November at The Lair. I’m sure they’ll be fireworks!!

MOM: MATT BURROUGHS

By Aaron Stead

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