We completed our 7th win in 9 matches this season, with a convincing 6-0 home victory against and Oak and Kastlefield side who were second in the league prior to the game.
Arriving at the ground there was a slight doubt the game would go due to continuing heavy rain, fortunately this cleared up around 10am, and the pitch looked in superb condition. Preparations for the match had been slightly disrupted as first Searing lofted a practice ball into the stream that runs along the rye, not content with one £40 match ball potentially being lost, our ‘brainless’ goalie Summers decided he needed to hone is penalty taking skills with midfielder Ebberson in goal, and promptly smashed a second football into the stream. Several of our players congregated around the stream wondering how were going to retrieve £80 worth of footballs. Luckily sub carpenter volunteered to run around to the far end of the stream and wait for the footballs to drift down towards him. The rest of team then completed their brief warm up, other than summers who strangely spent the next 15 minutes talking to a swan who was drifting up the stream.
As the game begun it became apparent that our ability and style of football was going to be too much for the opposition to deal with. Several early attacks came to nothing, as a number of crosses where either slightly over hit, or some desperate defending prevented us getting good strikes on goal away. Javi Rodriguez eventually opened the scoring with his first of the season on 15 minutes, the ball bouncing round the box following a number of blocked shots, fell to his feet and he finished in style from 16 yards out 1-0. The second goal was not long in coming, as the oppositions attack broke down, goalkeeper summers launched a long ball forward toward Rodriquez who brought the ball down just inside the penalty area before beating the full back with ease and cutting the ball across the goalmouth for Shaun coker to poke home from no more than 2 yards out 2-0. In fairness to the lads, we had probably done enough to wrap up the win at this stage, and for 15 minutes we stepped of the gas, and Oak were seeing a fair bit of the ball, although they struggled to create many good chances, other than a low strike which forced Summers into an excellent reaction save, the only other incident of note during this spell was centre midfielder Ebberson being stamped on, although the ref deemed it reasonable to just warn the opposition player when a red card was probably the correct decision. With the half drawing to a close we regained control of the game with several more chances coming and going, Coker twice heading a the keeper and Hall seeing a couple of chances blocked. The third goal arrived on the stroke of half time, another sweeping move saw the ball played into Coker, he squared the ball across the penalty towards Davies who drove the ball home from the edge of the area 3-0.
The second half began with the message to get a 4th goal and completely kill of any hopes the opposition had of a comeback. The oppositions decision to change linesman at half time, resulted in 5 or 6 offside calls which seemed dubious, eventually 10 minutes into the second half Davies broke clear(ironically he looked 3 yards offside when he received the ball) following some good work down the right hand side he squared to Shaun coker who fired home from close range 4-0. Manager Gunnell then made a double change on 60 minutes, the returning Carpenter replaced the excellent Rodriguez, and green replaced Wilkinson at right back. By this point the game was almost all one way traffic with constant pressure being applied on and the overworked opposition defence, and the 5th goal arrived when a corner was blocked to Gunnell who rolled back to Davies whose shot could only be parried into the net 5-0. A final sub saw Searing who had been carrying a knock introduced for the final 20 minutes replacing Coker who had put in a good shift upfront. Jason Douglas then added his second of the season with a calm finish from the edge of the area following good work from Davies and hall 6-0. The final 15 minutes saw the game become stretched and at times we were guilty of over playing and committing several players forward, leaving the defence badly exposed. Summers produced his second excellent save of the game late on, tipping a powerful strike away for a corner. The game finished as it had started with us camped in the opposition half although a 7th goal proved elusive.
Another good win, 4th clean sheet of the season and good to see several people are contributing goals. As always we could be a bit more clinical in front of goal and we would have had double figures. Promising signs for the upcoming fixtures, as I don’t feel we have been at our 100% best over the last 2 games, yet we have racked up 10 goals and have kept to clean sheets.
Man of the Match – Jason douglas
