Gunners poor series of results continued as they could only earn 1 point against lowly Arborfield. Arborfield took the lead early on when their forward burst free . However, things seemed to go in Gunners favour when one of their players was sent off for raising his hands after an altercation with Paul Marten.
Gunners started to dominate possession and looked dangerous when the ball was carried forward by the midfield. The Arborfield keeper was constantly out of his goal in the first half and Gunners had about three chances to score when the goal was not properly defended but the team failed to get their shot away or on target.
However, a short while later Gunners did earn a penalty when Phil was brought down in the box by a clumsy challenge. Stuart stepped up to take the penalty but hit this straight at the keeper for an easy save.
Paul Ali made a brief appearance in the second half but a recurrence of an injury forced him to leave the field of play.
Gunners had much more possession in the second half against ten men but not too many chances and again found difficulty hitting the target. Arborfield created very little and only had one real chance of note in the second half.
Gunners did get an equaliser with ten minutes to go when Phil finished from close range and then, towards the end of the game, Gunners were awarded another penalty when Peter Ali was brought down in the box. Andy Birch confidently volunteered to take this one but again another poor penalty was easily saved.
With a few minutes to go, Gunners thought they had scored the winner. When Marcus finished from close range only for the linesman to claim the ball had gone out of play. The decision was a little suspect to say the least.
Time eventually ran out leaving the final score a disappointing 1-1 draw. However, the team should be commended on making every effort to win the game in the second half which was an improvement on the last few games.
Match Facts
Goal : P Byrne (1)
Team
Pictures
