In the first year of participating in the Chelmsford League, the team automatically starts in the bottom division of the league. Therefore this was an opportunity to find out where the team could aim to be in the near future. The opposition today are running high at the top of the 3^rd Division, two above the Whites, and unbeaten.

Forest began the game well with some neat passing and with the wind behind them most of the opening moves were played in the Euro half. Danny Barker, again, was having a strong game playing as one of two strikers. He showed continually for the ball and his control enabled him to lay the ball off nicely to the midfield. Unfortunately the support play wasn’t as strong as it should be and this meant that Danny had too often to chase the ball down the left wing when there should have been an overlapping player.

Unfortunately whilst Forest continued to play some nice football, the play became predictable and Euro Dagenham adjusted well. Forest’s passes were intercepted and the plays broken down too early. Euro became more confident but after 20 minutes this became over confident as a Euro midfield player tried to play an outrageous back flick to his defence 10 yards in his own half. The ball fell to Andre Kotov who broke at the Euro goal. His pace, as always, took him away from the defenders but when the shot was on to be hit with his left he tried to play it with his right. The goalkeeper made a good save but the chance was missed.

Minutes later Euro broke down the right wing, the winger had the beating for pace of the Forest left back, Stuart Thorn, but Stuart still managed to slow the winger down. When the defence should have regrouped, the winger finally managed to jink past Stuart and send in his cross. The Forest centre halves had been dragged to the ball and when the ball was half cleared at the far post it fell to an unmarked Euro player in the centre of the goal to strike home well.

Forest benefited from most of the territorial advantage in the first half but failed to capitalise on this advantage and the half finished with Forest 1-0 behind.

The wind now benefited Euro but Forest’s defence initially held firm. At the start of the half Forest defended deep and managed to clear the ball but this just brought the Euro players closer to the goal, so Forest began top play a well organised offside trap. For the opening 15 minutes of the half this worked well but again became too predictable and a team of Euro’s ability began to adjust. So eventually the offside trap was broken and the right winger’s pace took him away from the out rushing Forest defence. The Forest keeper, Elliott Thwaites was a little static in his area and the Euro player found it to easy to lob the keeper from the edge of the area.

Forest received a break in the 60^th minute when a Euro player, after having been repeatedly warned for swearing completely overstepped the mark and was dismissed. But Forest failed to capitalise on the extra man. The next goal was going to be decisive and for some reason Forest continued to play the offside trap when a more cautious approach would have been more sensible. Yet again the trap was broken and again the pace of the Euro right winger proved decisive and his finish, unchallenged, was impeccable.

Forest were a beaten side, and disappointingly, they played the last 15 minutes poorly. They had a numerical advantage but it didn’t appear so and 5 minutes before the end conceded a poor fourth goal. A Euro cross from the right should have been dealt with by Elliott but all he did was flap the ball away from Greg Fedden on the goal line and deflected the ball over his head onto a post and into the net.

There were just a few positives from this game. Danny Baker continues to improve as a potential playmaker at the front. Chris Baker continues to surprise with his desire to overcome his physical disadvantage. Stuart Thorn is growing in confidence but should have more given his high level of performance. The team as a whole should realise that they can play at a higher level and should fear few teams. They have been unlucky to face confident and strong teams in the Cups this year, and what they need to do is focus on winning the league games well in the upcoming weeks. If each team member can concentrate on doing their job just a little bit better and avoid the silly errors than the rewards will come.