As Someone Once Said - "It's a funny old game..."

With no midweek fixture, The Ambers next opponents were Thackley who visited Oliver's Mount on Saturday 7th October.

The Ambers faithful were hoping for a better result and performance than the last outing at Rossington which ended in our biggest defeat of the season.

On an unseasonably warm day, the game ended in another defeat. This time though, Handsworth were undone by a freak goal in the 5th minute of stoppage time. Having conceded an early goal, central defender Henry Carne powered home a header to make it 1-1 at half-time.

However, the 3 points went home with Thackley after Ambers keeper Dylan Parkin parried a strong shot but the ball deflected slightly and hit an unsuspecting Thackley player before trickling into the back of the net. 

There was no time for another comeback as the referee blew the final whistle shortly after the game restarted.

Ian Robinson's accurate and honest (as ever) match report is here:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/teams/126071/match-centre/1-14094509/report

And my match album is here:

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/handsworthfc/photos/2023-10-07-ambers-12-thackley-ncel-prem-1077954.html

(Both of these links take you to the Handsworth Pitchero website. Have a little look around the page whilst you're there please?. I'm trying to increase hits to push our Pitchero ranking into the top 100 sites! Ta!!)

The disappointment was obviously evident amongst both fans and players although to be fair, if The Ambers had taken a couple of good chances created in the 1st half, the outcome could have been different. If's and but's count for nothing though and the fact is that team has come off a 6-game winning streak to a draw and 2 defeats.

The results leave Handsworth in 5th place in the division. It has to be said that at the start of the season, with new management and a new squad in place, I for one would have settled for 5th place after 12 games! It's a tough league and as other results from the past week have shown, anybody can beat anybody so there will be many more twists and turns I'm sure.

So we move on to the next two games which are both difficult away fixtures. On Tuesday, the game is at Goole and then next Saturday, we're at Frickley. Unfortunately, The Duchess and I won't be at Goole but we're hoping to make the Frickley game.

At the weekend, it was pointed out to me that we are just about a third of the way through the 2023/24 league season. Just another reflection of how quickly time is passing!

COYA 🧡🖤⚽👊