The first match day of the new year was something of a washout as the grass pitches at Douglas Eyre were pronounced unplayable due to waterlogging. Fortunately the vicissitudes of the weather do not affect the playing surface of the 3G pitch so, in the absence of a fixture for the first XI, the reserve XI got a chance to strut their stuff on the expanse of synthetic fibres against Old Salvatorians. They were also able to field a strong side with two long term injuries in Yassine Yahya and Danny Isichei making a welcome return to a starting berth.

Parms started more brightly than the weather, which was raining steadily, and were way sharper than their opposition too. Starting with a back three and three in midfield afforded an extra man in both areas during build up play and the visitors struggled to cope with the crispness of our passing, with the high press also paying early dividends as the hosts won possession high on the edge of the box. One such counter press following good work from Jake King, who exchanged passes with Isichei before delivering a telling cross which was met by the back post run of wingback Mehdi Mahdjoub who tapped home for his first goal for the club from close range to open the scoring on 10 minutes.

The rest of the half played out with our midfield dominating the proceedings, with Yahya setting up one brilliant chance after finding Christian Bordin's run in behind, only for the striker to fluff his lines with the attempted volley finish. There was one blip when goalkeeper Steve Kennedy-Clarke got stranded but skipper Chris McKinley was alive to the threat and able to stop the ball crossing the line low at the right hand post. Perhaps the biggest mystery of the first half was how the score line remained at 1-0. We dominated the possession and crafted the better chances, perhaps the Veo footage will reveal more about how that wasn't turned into a better outcome.

The second half began with more of the same, again the breakthrough came quite early but this time not from the high press. Our defenders went up for a corner which, having been taken by King, created confusion immediately in front of goal. Yahya challenged an Old Salvatorians defender in the scramble and the ball fell kindly for him to tuck away only his second goal for the club and the second of the game. One might have expected for the team to go on and win comfortably but it's one of football's most enduring truisms that you're often at your most vulnerable immediately after scoring, and so it turned out. Within 3 minutes a lapse in concentration at the back led to mistakes leading to a corner and a scruffy first goal from a similar penalty box scramble for the visitors.

In the ensuing minutes our domination evaporated and intensity waned as the momentum was ceded. Shortly after the hour the visitors had an equaliser, again with mistakes in our defending and not getting close enough leading to a feeling that it was all quite preventable. Having lost the momentum getting it back is easier said than done, although Mike Morgan almost scored off the back of impressive pressing of the keeper seconds after coming on. The ship was steadied though and the game looked to be petering out to be a draw when the hammer blow of an injury time goal after yet another penalty box scramble was conceded and after playing so well for so much of the game the home side ended up with nothing for their efforts. A gut wrenching defeat, hopefully the video will show more about what went wrong and how we might learn to avoid any future recurrence.

COYP