A cup semi-final against St Johns 1 has a certain ring to it! Both teams came into the game on the back of a good result and with two tight league games played between the teams this year both there was no clear favourite to make the final.
Affinity started confidently and enjoyed most of the early possession stroking the ball around nicely on both sides of the field. The decision to play five across the midfield with Gurps the lone front man was somewhat forced but played to the strengths of the team on the day.
The defence looked strong and dealt with all of St Johns early advances comfortably. Josh P replacing a recovering Gary B in goal was vocal helping both defence and midfield keep their shape. Gurps had the first chance of the game exchanging a one two with Mike seeing his shot rising over the bar. With St Johns keeping their four across the back it was obvious that chances would need to be made from midfielders coming through to support Gurps. Affinity's best chance of the first half came as Mike burst through beating two defenders with the goalie saving with his legs when it looked like a goal beckoned.
St Johns steadily increased their possession as the half went on and Affinity lost a bit of shape at the back. St Johns had a umber of chances with Josh making several fine saves to keep the scores level.
Half time brought a chance to regroup and remind the team to keep a good shape and be tighter on opponents. Having already put in a good first half shift tiredness would become a factor for both sides. With tiredness comes poor decision making and it was St Johns who were most guilty of this and ultimately would pay the price for it.
The game opened up with chances for both sides. St Johns favouring their right hand side kept Jobo and Luke honest but Affinity had to thank Josh on a number of occasions for fine saves that kept the scores level. It wasn't all backs to the wall defending though with Affinity pushing forward from both sides and the middle reminding St Johns that switching off wasn't an option.
The first goal of the game came as Mike forced a mistake from a defensive throw in, taking the ball from the defender and placing it powerfully past the oncoming keeper. Celebrations followed but with 20 minutes still to go there was still plenty of time for things to change. During a long last twenty minutes Affinity soaked up a lot of pressure and St Johns did have chances but there was an air of confidence as well as dogged determination not to be beaten by the Affinity team.
This attitude was epitomised by the defence of a series of corners that would almost certainly have resulted in an opposition goal earlier in the season. The final whistle was met with further celebrations as Affinity's season builds to a potentially silver winning conclusion when only a matter of weeks before potentially looked like petering out with a whimper.
As with the previous game the team performance was something to be proud of. However, special note has to be made of Josh's performance between the sticks as without it the writer suspects the result may have ended differently! For one last time this season #wegoagain next Saturday
