Sun Sports v Hoddesdon Town      26th July 2016       Herts Charity Shield 1st Rd

Sun Sports played their first official match of the season under new management on Tuesday night and it can only be said that things didn’t go quite to plan.
Sun started off well and kept possession but had some trouble with the Hoddesdon midfield who made fast darting runs on the counter.
On one of these occasions one of the Town players beat Gary Wallace who barely touched him on the shoulder but instead of falling down in a heap to get a penalty he shrugged the defender off and took a shot which was pushed round the post by Matty Evans in goal.
The referee though pointed to the spot to give the Lilywhites a penalty for the earlier infringement.
The penalty was converted despite Evan going the right way.
The early goal seemed to make heads drop for the boys in  yellow and Hoddesdon took control of the game with sloppy defending letting Jordan Watson able to get the crossed ball from being stuck between his legs to knock it over the line to make it 2-0 before half time.
The second half continued much in the way of the first with the Sun players unable to get going.
Jacob Joshua was put on at half time to give the front line a bit of muscle and certainly gave the Hoddesdon defence something to think about but Chris Blunden upfront was marked out of much of the game.
Halfway through the half a tussle started between Reece McMahon and a Hoddesdon player causing a free for all.
Once the referee had gained control McMahon was booked and the Hoddesdon player shown a straight red.
Now that the Lilywhites had gone a man down Sun fans thought that they could get back into the game but this was not to be as Watson scored from a looping shot over Evans to make it 3-0 and the game was virtually over.
It was a case of déjà vu just a few minutes later as the same player again found enough space to again lob Evans to make it 4- 0 and to give Watson a well deserved hat trick….not a bad start for the first game of the season!
As time went on the Hoddesdon players finally started to tire as the Sun then launched a couple of attacks at them to try to get a bit of pride back but by then the damage had been done.
Manager Tim O’Sullivan said after the match that the boys will have to learn quickly from their mistakes and move on