Ant & Dec, Morecombe and wise, delboy and rodney, batman and robin, all famous double acts, today the beaconsfield arms had there own to thank although ours could be described more as paul and barry chuckle than any of the above. Ryan and shuan coker after popping our for what was as the former had described to his gaffer would be a few drinks, the pair rolled in at 4.30 on match day morning, only then to proceed to net a hat rick each in an 8-2 romp against bottom of the table Hazlemere Sports.
Despite the drinking antics of the aforementioned pair, at least they were on time as per the gaffers instruction and had brought the corner flags and footballs. Talking about people being on time, however our referree Mr Reid was as usual running late, arriving at the rye at 10.15 he took a further 25 minutes to get the game under way at 10.40. The game kicked off in pleasent conditions and the surface was one that had clearly not been played on for some weeks as it was in good nick. A few early chances came and went for us, davies narrowly of target from an accut angle, with shuan coker who's prematch whats app message 'goals goals goals' was being put to the test with a couple of early sighters although these were comfortably dealt with by the away goalie. The game which was already delayed then got held up with a nasty facial injury to the opposition left back, it looked like a broken nose although it was difficult to tell from a distance away. With a sub made the game progressed and with us holding the upper hander the oppening goal arrived with Ryan coker producing a quality cross which was met by the head of younger brother shaun to give us a desreved lead 1-0. Within minutes the oppostion equalised following a rare mistake from the normally reliable skipper Gunnell, his crossfield pass to wilkinson was cut out allowing the hazlemere winger to run through and round summers for a well taken equaliser 1-1. Heads dropped accross the pitch(something noticed by a supporter and not myself) and it took us a few minutes to get going, although when we did a ball accross from davis was slightly overhit, O'connor collected on the left hand side and after some neat footwork played the ball into Shaun coker, who smashed home his second of the game 2-1. Hazlemere were someone staying in the game then got a lifeline following what appeared a routine headed clearance from gunnell, referee reid took his time before pointing to the spot, it appered he had seen an unfair use of the hands to gain leverage whilst jumping to clear the ball, much to the bermusement of several team mates and supproters, penalty given and converted with aplomb 2-2. As with there two previous equaliser hazlemere were not on level terms for long, a ball in from davies found ryan coker, his intial header was parried out by the oppositon keeper and from a couple of yards out the goal drought dating back to early october was over(this includes 6 game ban) 3-2. Within minutes half time was called.
A dissapointing episode at half time, saw our captain elect to sit out the team talk, it must be said that there were several things that contributed to this, firstly a rare mistake, a bad refeeing decison, some choice words from his manager and also some critiscm on pitch from team mates. I must apologies although my comments were not heard on the pitch, they were relayed to Matt and i shouldnt have made them as manager. That said i feel that there were a few people responsible, firstly we need to all stick together if someone makes a mistake, i did hear some words from 1/2 individuals which were not constructive and contributed to the situation. I must also add i dont agree with any player walking away from teamtalk at half time, i will not stand for it. As mentioned at half time we all play and manage at this level beacuse we make mistakes, some of us more than others, and certainly Matt has dug all of us out of holes far more than we have done in return.
Half time team talk over and done with, the message was clear get the job done, win ugly if needed. The second half showed why hazlemere have stuggled all season, we began to run riot and they rarely crossed our half way line in what turned out to be a one sided contest. Within a couple of minutes the now free-scoring Ryan coker added a second goal, a routine corner from pierecy avaded the entire oppositon defence and was headed home from no more than 2 yards out 4-2. Minutes later it was a hatrick from Ryan as he again scored from close range from another piercey corner 5-2. On the hour mark manager gunnell took the decision to do Prestwood saturday team a favour and rest Ryan ahead of next weeks cup semi final, Javi rodriguez entered the action having patiently waited for his chance from the bench. Shaun coker then completed his hatrick, a carbon copy of the two previous goals in this half, a piercey corner found him a few yards out and he headed home, thus giving both brothers a hat rick, no doubt something that has been discussed over sunday dinner in their household 6-2. With the job done and the decision now as too which brother took the match ball, Shaun was replaced with the returning dave roberts, following a reshuffle wilkinson pushed into midfield and Davies upfront. A nice team move set up goal number 7, with douglas who had enjoyed a solid game in the engine room pushing the ball wide to wilkinson who beat a man before finishing with the outside of his boot 7-2. A run of corners towards the end of the game perhaps surprisingly came to nothing before a long hopeful ball forward by roberts evaded the defence and aloweded davies time to head the ball home past the disppearing keeper.
A win and 8 goals scored, will take that all day long, we can do better and will have to find a higher level of performance in games to come. With both penfold and four season losing today and having played so many more games than us, it looks like the top three will be between Trix, Liberal & ourselves. Some huge games coming up over the next four weeks starting with Wycombe marsh next week. Lets keep this run of league wins going and we will be right in the mix for the title at the end of the season.
Man of the match - wilko, following the depature of Sam green and phil wingfields holiday, he stepped up and produced his best display of the season and capped it with a well taken goal.
