The mid-season slump has arrived early this year. After a couple of good opening games we've lost three on the trot, all to nil.

Seatoun PPL are new in our division and are still sorting out their team, with some players who have played at higher levels and some less experienced, and have had up and down results so far, so we weren't sure what we were going to be up against.

This was one of those games which could have gone either way, depending on who made something of their opportunities. After a fairly even first few minutes, we put together a series of attacks which all came to nothing - a shot by Phil was deflected wide, a cross didn't make it to unmarked men at the far post, a header from a corner hit the crossbar - and it may be in that time we lost (or rather failed to win) the game. The first time Seatoun  got near our penalty area, we fluffed our clearances and one of their guys managed to somehow sidefoot a pass past our backline which squeezed past Mike R into the far corner. Then from the kick-off we lost possession in the centre-circle, and one of their mid-fielders played a perfect through-ball which put a striker clear on goal, which he put away. So we went from dominating to 2-0 down in about a minute. The rest of the game was a bit of a shambles. It seemed like every time the ball flew out of a tackle it would go straight to a blue shirt, and although Paul B and Dave J fought hard to win possession, we were never able to make much progress into the wind. The only time we got through was when Ian played a ball through their backs for Phil to run on to, and he out-paced them and got a shot on target, but the keeper tipped it on to the bar, and we had no-one following up to challenge for the loose ball. Ian went close-ish with a volley on the turn from a throw-in which went across the goal but was always going wide.

Seatoun got more dominant, with one of their mid-fielders in particular effective at making space for himself and playing good balls to the strikers, but our backs kept preventing them getting clear shots. However, late in the half, one of their strikers picked up a ball played wide and managed to get past his man and down to the byline, then played a low cross to the other striker for a point-blank tap-in.

We were hopeful of getting a few back in the second half with the wind behind us, but we should know better than to try to predict Wellington weather. The wind died down over the break, and never came back to the strength it had been. We also saw that their best mid-fielder had quit with a niggling injury, so even more reason for us to feel like we could get back in the game. But it turned out to be a lack-lustre half - plenty of battles in the middle but not many good moves from either side. They were trying through-balls that were either being blocked or going straight through to Mike R, though a couple of times their strikers got enough control to have a go at goal, and Mike R made some good saves. At the other end, we ran at their defence a few times. Paul B created a few opportunities near the edge of the box but couldn't put them away; Ian played Mike O into space on the left but his shot was tipped over. It looked like the game was going to meander on with no more scoring, but late on Seatoun got a break and had 2 men unmarked at the far post. A cross went to one of them who had time to control and shoot. Even though he had the whole goal to shoot at, Mike R still got a touch on it but couldn't stop it going in.

So not a memorable game, and some guys are starting to have problems with long-term injuries and strains limiting the time they can spend on the field. But that's an issue for every team at this level. We might just have to rely on some inspirational sporting philosophy to turn things around, such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNASVPZ-tQE