On a frosty but sunny morning Avonmouth played host to Longwell Green, the only team they failed to beat in a league game during 2010. Although not firing on all cylinders, Avonmouth started the better team & had plenty of possession. With a lot of space found on the right hand side Aaron Davies & Josh Beecham were having plenty of the ball, however despite some good crosses from them into the penalty box the Longwell keeper was not called upon to make any major saves. The first real chance for the home team came after 20 minutes when after a pass on the left from Lukas Tsiopani, Mitch Harris had a good shot saved by the keeper. After 26 minutes Avonmouth finally got the goal that their possession had deserved. In his own half Mitch Day collected the ball & fed it to Charlie Parker on the left, whose pinpoint pass then found Harris who managed to slide his shot past the advancing keeper. After the goal Harris had a few more half chances to score but these were not taken & Longwell restricted the score to 1:0 at half time.
Half time: Avonmouth 1 Longwell Green 0
Talk at half time was would Avonmouth pay for not getting a second goal, however these concerns soon disappeared as from the restart the home team were quickly on the front foot & after 40 minutes got the important second goal. Great interlinking football between Davies & Luke French on the right ended up with Davies sending over a great cross, which found Parker who guided his low shot into the bottom right hand corner of the net. Within 5 minutes the home supporters were celebrating again when goal number 3 arrived. After some good build up play Harris had his shot saved & in the following goalmouth scramble the ball ended up in the back of the net with Montel Riches celebrating his goal. With a comfortable lead Avonmouth started to pass the ball around with confidence. There were a few more chances to increase the lead but these were missed & with some great defensive blocks Longwell managed to keep the score down to 3:0.
Against a team who had not lost a league game since the first day of the season, today saw another good solid all round display by the boys who showed unusual patience before getting the opening goal. Another pleasing aspect was again the performance of the defence who deservedly managed to keep a clean sheet & restrict Longwell from having any real attempts on goal. Following today’s results we are now 12 points clear of second placed Bromley Heath & 15 points clear of AEK Boca in third & even if both teams won their games in hand we would still have a comfortable lead over them.
Full Time: Avonmouth 3 Longwell Green 0
