Discipline improved significantly from last week. We gave away very few penalties in the game and worked with the referee instead of against him, of which we were guilty last week and most of last year. This made Worthing really work for their points, as we didn't gift them with easy points, possession or territory.

One-on-one tackles were made and some big hits went in. Organization in attack and defence was much improved. However, we need to sort out certain organizational aspects of our defence in order to make us a more difficult team to break down. Nowadays great teams are founded on great defence and this is something that we will aim to improve throughout the season.

In addition, on the developmental side, we were occasionally guilty of getting isolated in attack; going off in 1s and 2s, instead of staying with support, retaining possession and recycling the ball. This gave Worthing opportunities either to turn ball over or to receive penalties as a result of us holding on to the ball on the ground. Worthing certainly won the turn over battle and this is a key statistic that is of great importance in determining match results, especially in close encounters like this.

On balance, this was a great step forward for Shelford. Worthing should be promotion contenders at the end of the season and we very nearly turned them over on their home patch. Some would argue that we should have won and this result could have so easily gone our way. Our performance reinforced the feeling that we can compete with and beat the best sides in the league. Our ethic is to continue to do what we do well and to improve in areas that have been marked for development. There was a definite mood shift in the Shelford collective on Saturday and confidence for the rest of the season is growing.

As always, we are grateful for your ongoing support and look forward to seeing you all at the next home game against Sutton & Epsom.

Skips