Russell Vale 2, Maroons 0

"We could do with some injuries! 21 declared fit for Saturday. Who wants the week off?" - TH10, Friday.
As soon as I pressed the button on this inane quote I thought I knew what was coming. In the washup, Ant's loss to a serious ankle ligament damage after 20 minutes was probably the difference in a game against a team that had strung together seven wins a in a row before our meeting. The carnage didn't stop there as we went from 16 fit starters to 12 fit finishers and our depth and finals aspirations will get a massive test over the next month.
The Cawley Park surface, hacked up by those feral SHogs in a midweek game, was diabolical. Passing proved problematic and yet we did well to dominate the opening half hour into a strong wind.
Fergus's deep cross found Ant unmarked at the back post for our best chance but the ball was a little high and was headed just over. A neat ball allowed Ant to sneak in and he looked just about to nod over the advancing keeper when his ankle rolled in a gopher hole. He took no further part in the game and will be on crutches for 10 days and away from running for the next four weeks.
After that blow, RV started to take control but the 0-0 at the break was a fair reflection and was shaping as a decent result.
We created little, snuffed out most RV raids and were generally hanging in comfortably when their goal came out of nothing. A RV midfielder shot high over the bar and got a little clip on the boot from JB as the ball disappeared into the distance. The RV player made nothing of the minimal contact and it was a shock to all when the ref called it back for a freekick outside the area.
Once again the wall was a shambles - it really doesn't need to stand outside the line of the post to prevent a goal kick - and PH stood behind it, giving their attack a huge target to aim at. A sweet shot brought a great save from PH, except the ball ricocheted into the bar and straight into the path of a RV player for a simple tap in.
The linesman, a RV Masters 1 player, gave us some hope by flagging for offside but was talked around by the ref and the goal stood.
RV's defensive line was giving us no room to move and we were restricted to a couple of half chances. With 10 minutes to go a ball flicked off a defender's boot, shot up and caught his hand in the box. Our appeals were waved away with the ref blaming Jon S and his marker for drawing his attention away from the incident. A week earlier it would have been given (and something very similar was against us) but in truth, we created very little of our own and RV probably deserved their good fortune.
TH10 finally took his first shot of a frustrating game after 85 minutes but the keeper bundled it away for a corner. Then with two minutes left Social Dave missed a regulation cross, the RV attacker nipped in to nudge home a second and our chqances of overtaking Old Boys at the top had disappeared.