Part of the fun of football is the journey to the game, and away games are always throwing up new challenges. Being in a new league only highlights the basics, do your homework, get to know where you are going and allow enough time to enjoy the destination as well as the game. My journey to Old Blues' home pitch wasn't made any easier by a rail strike and my initial plan to go via circle line to connect with the District Line was scuppered by delays and so I was left with the option of Hammersmith which got me to Richmond without issue. The pitch was nearer Ham House so following the Thames and public footpaths including the less than charmingly named "Cutthroat's Alley" I found myself pitch side, and as pitches go this was a belter, the weather was fine and sunny, what was more of an issue was the attendance. Only 10 1st XI players were there to do the full warm-up routine and start the game.

We weren't down a man for very long and all seemed well as we broke through down the right where Akim Tiyamiyu's cutback put the ball on a plate to George Burton who managed to scoop it wide of the ostensibly open goal. What followed in the next ten minutes ended up defining the game. A break on our right flank put pressure on the defence who were unable to stop the ball into the box or the perfectly shaped finish in off the far post. A second followed shortly after as the home side broke again and with nobody picking up the runner from their midfield who took the ball in their stride and slipped a slick finish past the unprotected goalkeeper. The game wasn't all one way traffic, when we had the ball we worked it forward with both threat and purpose and should really have broken our duck as the ball was slid through from the midfield to Burton who homed in on goal and looked to have evaded the keeper but also pulled it agonisingly wide of the far post. It was therefore a hammer blow to concede a third, again it came from the right but more from a set piece scenario and for the third time in four games we had no intervention to the well flighted far post ball which met the towering header from our hosts. A quarter of the game had been played so time remained to get back into it and when a relatively simple move from our left saw Tiyamiyu get on the end of the crossed ball from Andrew Robson to score his first league goal of the campaign.

3-1 down at the break was a long way from where we wanted to be but we had played well enough to make good chances and remained confident that we could get back into it and started well in that endeavour, unfortunately our hosts were equally adept in frustrating our efforts as we came closer and closer to closing the gap in scoring between us. Then, out of the blue, an outrageous fluke. It was meant to be a cross but their player shanked the ball, which got the benefit of spin and whatever breeze there was to sail over the keeper and into the net. Parms, to their credit, kept plugging away and got one back as Luke Moore got on the end of a cross from fellow full back Ryan Allison and steered it home to the goalie's left. The last quarter of the game saw the home side working tirelessly to keep us at bay but, in truth, we struggled to make chances as good as the ones we crafted in the first quarter and we were left to rue the lack of clinical efficiency that our opponents showed. The disruption to our normally meticulous pre-match routine proving costly, we're just going to have to lick our wounds and come back stronger.

COYP.