Slip slidin away

The Maroons slipped to a second defeat of the season, 3-1 against the Makos on Saturday, failing to gain a foothold on a treacherous St James Park.
The teams were closely matched in the first half as the main challenge for the players was to stay on their feet.
There were few chances at either end, Kev, in goal for the missing Pete, pulling off a fine point blank save when the Makos eked out their best chance of the half. With the backline doing well to hold out the Makos tricky forwards despite dodgy footing, the midfield worked hard to present some chances up front.
Ant fizzed a shot just wide of the upright after breaking through on the right, and the half ended with Shakey playing in TH10 who smacked his shot through the keepers fingers but onto the crossbar.
The second half continued as a tight struggle until the 65th minute when the whistle sounded for the second time for a foul. Unfortunately this was inside our box as the Mako's striker pushed his way between Tom and another defender and ended up on his belly.
Their number 10 struck the penalty weakly but it just had enough to slip under Kev.
There was no controversy about their second - a midfielder player picking it up 25 metres out, taking a touch and curling a wonderful strike beyond Kev's outstretched arm and low into the corner.
We pushed forward and enjoyed our best period for the next quarter hour, getting to the byline several times and winning a few corners. The ball just wouldn't fall in the box and the Mako's defence dug in well to scramble away the dangers.
Dave D, getting into the penalty area, laid a ball for TH10 whose smashed strike from the edge of the box was tipped onto the bar by the keeper. Soon after Dave dinked a ball into Tom who showed the strikers how it's done with a sweet strike.
"It's easy," Tom reports. "Just kick the ball into that big net." Cheers for that.
We got back up for a couple more half chances before we were killed off in the final minutes. A mistake at the back let in their forweard who calmly rolled the ball past Kev to finish the contest.