He picked up a yellow early on so it may have been 2 bookings.

The first ten minutes told us it was going to be a long night, we were a bit like rabbits caught in the headlights, there passing was more crisp, there tackles more forcefull which one or two of our players found not to their liking.
But hopefully this will be a wakeup call to both the players and the management, from the beginning of the season,  I felt we were a bit light regarding our players, not just in quality but in upper body strength, this proved to be correct for some of them, we were too easily pushed off the ball and with no target man to hold the ball up, it just kept coming back.
One player in particular seemed as if he wished he was not there as he just could not get to grips with either the determined tackles or the pace of the game constantly waving his arms in frustration as he was either relieved of the ball by an opponent or yet another of his passes went astray.
Although we were obviously never going to win the game, which was evident after the first ten minutes, there were some very good performances from certain individuals which will be some comfort to Frank and Paul and give something to build on, so it was not all doom and gloom there were some positives to be had from an evening might prove to be a positive yet.

We do have that physical presence in midfield now Casey...that's Kevin! He's as physical as they come! Just frustrating that he got 2 yellows in the space of 5-10 minutes.

Chace came on for Sandy after the red and started to pull the strings in midfield a little, but it was always tough against the 11.

Definitely agree with Alan regarding not holding the ball up and it coming straight back down the pitch. We miss Mike Dixon in that regard.

I think Saturday will be another tough test as Merstham have some physical players too, alongside the two hall brothers who are tricky wingers! Let's see how we cope there

About Sol - he needs to learn to move on if he's going to be successful at this level. He spent 90 minutes in the linesmans ear clearly aggrieved about the penalty decision. For me he loses focus and his head with things like that. You have to move on from decisions, regardless of whether they were wrong. Take it on the chin, refocus and concentrate on defending. It sets a bad example for the rest of the team if he just keeps chirping away on the same issue. 

One consolation is that I realised today only one team goes down from this division, and I sure as hell don't think it will be us!

Not sure on Jake Baxter, perhaps the train derailment screwed his plans late on?

Staines were the best team I've seen in a long time, big, strong, quick, organised, determined, slick, confident, skillful.......everything we weren't on the night to be honest.

Their first goal came from the softest penalty decision you'll ever see, Kyle saved the initial effort with his feet but not surprisingly Staines were quicker to the loose ball and their bloke scuffed the rebound home. No complaints about The Guvnor's red card, 2 bookable offences. 

" Our boys took one hell of a beating " 

Buckle up fellas, this could be a bumpy ride