Icarus Masters played Watlington Town Vets in their second game of Icarus’ inaugural Premier League season. It was a perfect night for football on our favoured 4G pitch and under the floodlights.

Despite some last minute changes and uncertainty over the squad, Icarus had a great squad out and wanted to show what they were made of following a heavy defeat in the last game.

Starting on the front foot after an excellent warm up, Icarus were knocking the ball around well and playing some of the best football we have seen in many years. DT, having recovered from flu, and despite playing in his less preferred position of RB, still couldn’t resist bombing down the right and putting in a great cross for Danny to slot it past the keeper. 1-0 up after 10 mins and all going well.

Some great play in the middle, playing the way they were facing and retaining the ball, followed by some excellent interchanges between the back four and down the left, saw Danny beat his man and put an excellent cross in that was dummied by the first attacker only to be met by the incoming Dunc who calmly placed it past the keeper. 2-0 up after 15 mins.

Rich said on the sideline that 2-0 is a dangerous scoreline and so it proved to be as Icarus took their foot off the gas a little and allowed Watlington back in the game. They exploited gaps in behind well to make it 2-2 and had some pace and quality across their attacking unit.

However, this kicked Icarus back to life and they started playing again. A lovely calculated long ball over the top by DT picked out Dunc who beat the keeper well for Icarus to go into half time with a lead.

The second half was a different story however, and Watlington began to play with more intensity and purpose. That was met by Icarus unfortunately dropping off a bit. Each and every player found themselves second to the ball for most of the half and ended up losing that half 3-0.

So a 5-3 loss but still many positives to come from that. Icarus had some chances in the second half with DT being denied by two great saves as he broke clear. An honest and in depth chat then occurred in the changing room where the reasoning for the drop off in the second half was discussed, but also the many positives including the excellent football that was played in patches. On the whole, this was a huge step in the right direction and the fact that all were really disappointed with the result and thought we could have easily beaten that team, suggests we belong in this league and can compete. Onto the next in a couple of weeks time. UTI ?