After a win in last week’s friendly Lazio arrived in good spirits and were buoyed further by two new signing during the week, with Alex and Oscar registered just in time to make their league debuts today.

Lazio certainly started brightly enough but were caught out in the opening 5 minutes when Bedford capitalised on a defensive error to take the lead. 5 minutes later things got worse as Bedford got in behind the Lazio backline and grabbed another goal to double their lead.

Lazio were wobbling at this point and it would have been easy for the goals to start flying in. Instead Lazio knuckled down, worked hard and restricted further chances for Bedford.

With the amount of defending needed it was hard for Lazio to get too much going the other way. The best chance of the half fell to Jelani from a good free kick from Blake but even this was only a half chance as the ball didn’t quite sit right.

2-0 Bedford at halftime.

After (yet another) inspiring halftime team talk from the Lazio brain trust the boys came out fired up for the second half…..and then found themselves 4-0 down within about 5 minutes of the restart.

Much like the first half however the heads didn’t drop and Lazio put in a really spirited display for the remainder of the game.

Both teams had goals ruled out for offside. Lazio’s followed a lovely cut into the box from Alex, then a curling shot that was well saved by the Bedford keeper. Blake popped in the rebound but was judged offside when the shot came in.

Lazio looked much more dangerous going forward this half with Alex, Josh R and Josh G all making good runs and were unlucky a few times where the final ball just didn’t break their way.

Bedford did continue to enjoy more of the play and had their own chances but a lot of solid defending from the Lazio back line, along with some wayward finishing, meant that Bedford didn’t add to their tally.

With no further goals in the last 30 mins, the game finished 4-0 to Bedford.

Well played to the boys today, great effort and commitment against very strong opposition. We gave away some sloppy goals at bad times but we’ll take that forward and keep looking to improve.

The Gartec Player of the Match this week went to our right back Kiro, who stood up to the challenge of facing a strong winger and also kept showing for the ball when were in possession, well played Kiro.

Tony R and Steve on the flag today, big thanks to both, with Steve edging the Gartec lino of the Match for disallowing an offside Bedford goal!