Due to various holidays and accumulated injuries, Gunners barely managed to get a side together and only the bare 11 made it against Shinfield.
Shinfield were well up for the game and immediately took the game to Gunners with some good passing football and fast attacking play. Gunners looked sluggish and conceded an early goal.
However, Gunners did get back into the game when Matt Rees played a free kick into the box which was controlled and stabbed home from close range by Peter Ali who was making only his second start of the season.
Then Gunners had a nightmare ten minutes when they were completely over run by Shinfield who scored three quick goals to give them a convincing lead.
In the second half, an early injury to Lee Bonnici saw Gunners reduced to 10 men for the rest of the game and Gunners struggled against a confident Shinfield side who added a few more goals in the second half.
The final score was an 8 - 1 defeat, the biggest defeat of the season.
Man of the Match for Gunners was Carlton Dickson who continued to battle for the entire game.
Shinfield were well motivated for the game and Gunners were defensively poor and struggled to cope. The Gunners midfield were outplayed whilst Steve and Bill had little support up front. Unfortunately, when Gunners were reduced to ten men there was little chance of anything being salvaged from the game.
Match Facts
MOM : C Dickson
Goal : Pe Ali (1)
Team
