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A painful defeat by league rivals Warriors ended any hope for the double. A lack of composure in front of goal and only half the players putting any real effort into the tie showed Freeflow what they have to improve on if they want to win the league.
Freeflow started the game in nervous fashion as they failed to control the ball let alone pass it. Warriors early on with their direct long ball physical game dominated and hit the bar from close range after ten minutes. This seemed to be the moment that sprung Freeflow into life, as they then competed the first and seconds balls, particularly Selim who led the fight to the opposition. The passing game slowly started to return and Drayton was put through one on one twice but on both occasions scuffed his shot.
Warriors now looked nervous especially at the back as Freeflow looked to play through passes into central areas. Arjun showed leadership at the back both vocally and with his defending. Manvir's performance grew as the first-half progressed. He closed the opponent defenders down and created chances for others.
Before half-time Jay was clean through on two occasions but nerves over composure seemed to prevail in the home sides finishing. The missed chances and dominance all went to waste moments before half-time. Warriors managed to get some breathing space as they won a throw in on the left deep in Freeflow's half. The home side failed to defend the corresponding ball and then did not push up to play off-side and Warriors pounced, 1:0 with a goal from close range.
Despite the nervy start Freeflow showed they were the better team in the first period and were encouraged to play the same way in the second period. Warriors though had other ideas, as in the first league meeting Warriors produced a high tempo start to the second period and scored from a long ball, 2:0. This seemed to act as a sucker punch for Freeflow and looked mentally very affected by that second goal. The game then became scrappy for a ten minute period which suited Warriors and from another direct long ball they added the third goal, 3:0.
Freeflow made some changes to try and claw them selves back and they did start to dominate as the game became stretched. But it was more territorial pressure rather than a passing game with composure. Vinay was in the clear and struck his shot just wide, Manvir also got through but his shots went straight at the keeper. With eighteen minutes left Freeflow finally got the goal they deserved as Manvir forced his shot through the keeper after the only moment of positive play by Jag, who other than this moment produced a disappointing below par performance.
Warriors weathered the late storm well and felt they gained what looked like a psychological edge over Freeflow for the crunch league game in two weeks especially now that they had beaten Freeflow twice away from home.
Freeflow though showed more signs in this game than in the previous defeat that they have the ability to go to Warriors in two weeks time and win. Freeflow showed that their quick passing game and superior technique caused Warriors real problems and in the first half the away side looked nervous and had a lot of weaknesses. All Freeflow need to add to their performance in two weeks time will be composure in front of goal and for every player to put in the same work rate as each other, ultimately to play together as a team.
SQUAD: YIGIT, VINAY, ARJUN, CLINTON, AMANDEEP, MOURAD, DRAYTON, MANVIR, ALI, JAG, JASPREET, KAMEL, SELIM, JAY, RAJ. 3 Changes made to the previous squad.
GOALS: Manvir 1.
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