The Warriors were full of optimism for their game at Bristol & West having beaten the home team in a friendly in September. The Warriors took on the game on at a frenzied pace, full of running, hard work and determination. All fine attributes that are part of a winning formula. However, there are other aspects of the game such as guile, changing the pace, playing to the game plan and keeping the ball strong. Unfortunately there was a lot of the later missing. With some of the play being conducted if Usain Bolt was chasing us down, the ball was given away cheaply too often, and there weren't many periods of constructive play from Westbury for sixty minutes. Playing 3, 4, 3 the game was even in the first half, with Joe Petch making some good saves. At the other end it is difficult to recall many quality crosses into the D or saves made from the home keeper. Tom Taylor was feeling his way back from last week's calf strain and was the most creative player in the team. His two short corners were well struck, but just wide, and frustratingly just missing the stick of the injector. At half time the game was still deadlocked at 0-0, so there was still everything to play for. Maybe the game plan was wrong as indecision crept into the back three who have been our most consistent unit this winter. The first Bristol & West goal was left uncontested as the home forward was given the freedom of the D and Joe Petch tried valiantly to save but was well beaten by a good shot. There was a similar feel the B&W second goal. Joe made a great hands stop to a deflection that was going over his head to stop a third going in. With ten minutes to go, there was a more cohesion in the Westbury moves and James Pope began to carve his way down the right. Tom Taylor, felt his calf was strong enough to see him press up as the play maker and things began to look more like the Westbury team we expected to see from the start. A short corner was somewhat tamely hit back to the far post, but Toby Whitehead was alert enough to flick it in to bring us within a goal of B&W. Ed White was a whisker away from a late equaliser, but his shot was just the wrong side of the post. The home team had a better balance about the way they played and probably deserved their win as they played a more controlled game. What can we learn from this defeat? When we play both B&W E and F again ( we've lost 2-1 away to both of them), we can reverse those scores it we play with more control and make better decisions on how, where and when we use the ball. If we were of limited ability, then it would be fair to say we gave it our best shot, however, we have for more to offer than we showed today. We can learn from watching Tom Taylor who didn't try to get to the bye line in 9.95 secs, but did it in a sensible, skilful and assured manner, always in control of the ball and making good choices in the passes he made. We finish the first half of the season with a 50% record, but it could so easily have been 6-8 points more.