Match Report

‘They say that football is a game of two halves, how right they are’

Therefore for the purpose of this match report I am not going to mention the first 45 minutes as no amount of creative juices or inspiration would do it justice, quite an appropriate word chosen there considering today’s oppo were none other than the “Met” Police.

We kicked off the second half 3 nil down and in all fairness we were lucky to get Nil! However we were now being assisted by a twelfth man AKA the wind. Suddenly it must have finally dawned on all of us that if we played the ball along the floor to feet nice and simple then the Met would not be able to live with us, for this type of football had helped us win our last 2 games scoring 10 and only conceding a solitary goal along the way, surely it was a formula for success??

We got off to a flying squad…(sorry I meant start) as we pulled a goal back very early on through the in form Paul Tanton who has hit his 5th goal of the season. This was created by some excellent interlinking play between Charlie Matthews and Simon Harvey out on the right wing and a perfect ball delivered into the box by the latter that was met on the volley and flashed across the goal and into the bottom corner leaving the Met goalkeeper with no chance.

So now it was 1-3 but we had stepped at least 2 gears and we continued to have further chances, some gilt edged and some rather speculative but all the while we had the ball the Met did not even enter our half. What this also meant was because we were not just hoofing the ball up field any further to be out jumped/out muscled or just blatantly fouled we discovered that the Met simply didn’t have an answer to our play. Sure they would now and again true to form bring us back down to earth with a bump, quite literally!

At the back we had not broken a sweat from the kick off of the second half, and when they were called upon the likes of Danny Saines (left back) Andy Cobham and Tony Simpson (both centre back) dealt with the job in hand with real ease. Rich Davies played an almost full back role at right back knocking some excellent passes around almost Jan Molby like. We competed in the middle of the pitch with Matt Wright and Daragh working their socks off and both were unlucky not to get on the scoresheet with a couple of headed chances between them.

We continued to pressure the Met and should have got at least a further 2 goals, one opportunity was squandered by PG who was playing left midfield today. A superb pass from Rich Davies at right back spilt the defence and left PG one on one with the onrushing Goalkeeper who in fairness did well to make the tackle outside the box.
Another chance came when their goalkeeper (who normally plays outfield I may add) pulled off the save of the match with a point blank save after further good work and another excellent delivery from out wide. And who knows maybe on another day when Aaron Carpenter hadn’t come down with Bridge bar-itus he may have helped himself to a couple of goals and almost definitely a lot of assists.

Unfortunately time was against us as the sound of Mickey Gearing's whistle rang out all too loud. It was simply a case of too little too late. We had left ourselves with a mountain to climb. But based on the second half performance alone we can take some heart from the game. If this had been a boxing match the referee would have stopped it based on the second half pounding we dished out to our bigger, heavier and sometimes down right nastier opponent!

On another positive note it was good to see Darren Mace back in the fold, and a big thank you to Charlie Matthews for helping out again who had a belter of a game (a future Saturday player in the making me thinks???) I’m sure all the team will join me in wishing Pete Harvey a speedy recovery also. Apparently his back problem is based upon him “carrying” the rest of the team!!

MOM was won by Rich Davies, but I think everybody involved deserves a huge pat on the back for the 2nd half performance. Roll on next Sunday where we entertain the Welsh Tavern at home and then apparently there is no game the following Sunday, maybe this is due to us having several players away on international duty or maybe because Toby ‘Lord Lucan’ couldn’t find any other youth teams for us to play, after all it will be half term!!