17 players on Thursday night, Sunday morning the rush around to boost our numbers to 13 was answered when former captain Hawken answered and 8.30 sos call from the gaffa. Roberts & Wilkinson(injuries), gray(illness), rodriguez & O'connor all missed the game. Davies returned to the squad along with carpenter & the aforementioned Hawken.
Our squad or lack of it was not the only issue, on arrival to the pitch the heavy rainfall had caused both penalty areas to have some large puddles in the goalmouths, rather than allowing us to sweep the water away the terriers goalie(nicknamed brain dead - more of that later) decided he would warm up by diving around in the puddle, eventually he was coaxed out of the goal and we could get the pitch playable.
The gaffa elected to play a 4-3-3 formation retaining the same back 4 & midfield 3 as the previous weeks win against UFC, changes upfront saw searing and Davies partnering goal machine Ryan Coker. Carpenter and Hawken would wait for their opportunity from the bench.
Having not had a half time lead in any of our previous 6 games dating back to early February it was important we got off to a good start and we did just that with the midfield 3 control the early stages of the game, Piercey in particular linking well with the two Wide forwards, Searing looking particular sharp on his return to the stating line up. In fact the first 25 minutes was all beacy pressure, the opposition struggling to get out of there own area at times, searing drilling a shot wide, whilst there were a couple of half chances from corners, Gunnell's flick on was met by Ryan Coker who could only steer wide. As with any game the longer you go without scoring the more the opposition grow in confidence and for a 5 minute spell terriers had a couple of strong runs down either wing, although an end product
Was lacking, it has to be said the lack of a deserved goal saw us try to force play and go a little bit too direct in this spell. 30 minutes in and we got the breakthrough, pierce teeing up Shaun Coker some 30 yards from goal, he fizzed a low strike along the turf which nestled into the bottom corner, a good strike and well deserved lead 1-0. As so often happens with this team it takes us a while to get one, but several others follow, a few minutes later the ball was bobbling around in midfield, seeing space open up centre back ran into space on the half way line and was slipped clean through by Davies, having to run the length of the terriers half he ran in on goal and fired a left footed strike high into the roof of the net 2-0, half time arrived shortly after.
The message was clear to keep the ball on the deck and playing the way we had done for majority of the first half, and almost immediately we won a penalty, a ball got played up to target man ryan coker, as he turned like an oil tanker he was clipped and fell to the ground, the ref had no choice but to award a penalty, Piercey confidently fired passed the static keeper(him again) 3-0. Confidence was now flowing, it had been a long time since we were so comfortably ahead at this stage of a game and forth goal arrived just a minute later, Davies crossed from the right, the keeper flapped and missed leaving coker to head home from a yard out 4-0. Afc terriers were punch-drunk and simply could not handle the passing and movement of beacy with our superior ability shining through, Piercey picked out Searing from a quick free kick, searing show good composure to place a neat finish beyond the keepers dive 5-0, a few minutes later Piercey found douglas some 25 yards from goal, who let fly with a right foot bullet of a shot which arrowed into the top corner giving the keeper no chance 6-0. Having seen every other midfielder and striker score, Davies was now on the hunt for a goal, and saw a shot well saved by the keeper, minutes later he was gifted a header from a yard out following a piercey corner 7-0, again some questionable keeping. Following the 7th goal, the terriers keeper had enough and his deluded mind three of our goals were offside, having berated the ref, he then subbed himself off whilst receiving a yellow card for abusive language, this whole incident was quite unbelievable, unquestionably he was at fault for at least three of the seven goals to this point, yet he blamed everyone but himself!, thankfully for terriers there back up keeper (matt hawes) is much superior and in my opinion should be playing himself, we can only hope he makes this decision next week against Afc liberal. Anyway back to the game and with 7 goals in the bag we seemed to lose our shape as players justifiably all wanted to add to their personal goal tallies, once again we shot ourselves in the foot with minutes to go, with a clean sheet seemingly in the bag a gunnell back pass was picked up rather inexplicably by goal keeper summers leaving terriers with an indirect free kick 10 yards from goal, terriers skipper ryan webb blasted the ball towards the goal, taking a deflection which left summers with no chance 7-1. There was still time for one more goal some good play from Ryan coker down the right saw him cut the ball back to the edge of the area where douglas fired in his second of the game with just a minute to go 8-1.
A good performance, really encouraging to see some many different people score, I thought some of the football was outstanding today, defensively solid again, midfield were excellent and forwards all did a good job.
Man of the match – Pete ebberson, excellent in the back four and did well when pushed into midfield on 70 minutes.
Ratings
Chris Summers – 7 – good save in the first half, good distribution, blotted copybook by picking up back pass which cost team goal.
Phil wingfield – 7.5 – solid display at left back
Mark Bumpstead – 7.5 – quiet day for the big man at the back
Matt Gunnell – 8 – consistent as ever, great run and finish for his goal
Pete Ebberson – 8.5 – enjoying his best run of form over last few weeks, solid at right back, offered a good option getting forward before moving into midfield and showing what he is all about.
Jonny Piercey – 8 – at his creative best, linked well with midfield and racked up 4 assists and a goal
Jason Douglas – 8 – two excellent finishes, deserved those goals for all his hard work in the midfield
Shaun Coker – 8 – settling nicely into a new midfield role, good work rate and good long range strike to open scoring
Rich Davies – 8 – quiet first half, second half was lively and a constant threat, well deserved goal.
Paddy Searing – 8 – lively display, capped by a well taken goal, top player/bloke to have round, shame it’s not that often.
Ryan Coker – 8 – Best display in a while, held ball up well, won a lot of flick on’s, linked well with midfield and other strikers, loses half a point for ‘gelling’ his hair prior to game, gains it back for bacon sandwich he made his hung-over manager prior to game.
Subs
Matt Carpenter – 7.5 – Lively appearance as sub, good delivery into box from wide areas on a couple of occasions.
Simon Hawken – 7.5 – won some key tackles and made couple of good interceptions when he came on.
