Today was a cup game in the E-Cambridge against same league team the Grosvenor
Rovers had midfielder Connor Naish missing though illness so a late call to Lenroy lemonious
Made up the 3 subs. There was a couple of changes to the team after the last game in came Brian Parr for Chris Cordery
& Ryan Hilton came in for Connor Naish.
The pitch wasn't the best as a lot of rain over the week but both teams made a good game off it the game started off scrappy
But rovers got hold of the game after about 15 mins rovers played a pressing game and tried to close down the Grosvenor midfield
To make them make the mistakes midfielder Lewis Woodgates was here there and everywhere in the midfield rovers had a couple of good chances in the first half Thompson played in Hall 1 on 1 & the GK made a save with his feet. Thompson hit one over the bar from 8 yards but rovers had (THE) Grosvenor worried and good defending from CB pairing BOOL & BATTIMELLI it gave rovers a solid platform to play high up the pitch GK RUNDLE make 1 save and caught 2-3 crosses in the first half and looked good again in only his second game for rovers
HT
In the second half rovers started where they left off pressing high and trying to find a way though but on 55 mins Rovers winger Ryan Hilton pulled up with a thigh strain and was replaced by Winger Ross Fryer who went to play up top with his pace and Thompson moved out to the right wing
5 mins later fryer chased down a goal kick from Rundle on the left hand side and nicked the ball from the CB and ran past the other defender into the box and pulled it back to Hall who smashed it in off the bar from about 12 yards. It was halls 2nd goal in 4 games since signing on for the Rovers
Rovers deserved their one goal lead after all the pressure they had put on the Grosvenor defence.
The Grosvenor started to come back into the game and a throw in from the left hand side was put into the box and defender Battimelli went though the back of the tall No10 and the ref gave a penalty to the Grosvenor and they finished it right into the top corner rovers made there second sub when RB Lawrence came off and was replaced by lemonious who went into CM & Dale beeches moved to RB.
The Grosvenor had a corner witch went out the back stick and the player went to cross the ball and hit the rovers defender on the hand and the ref gave a 2nd penalty witch to be fair was a penalty witch was smashed in the top corner again that was 2 good pens now from the Grosvenor
Rovers really didn't deserve to be losing 2-1 it was hard to take after the lads had played so well for 70mins but captain Liam Naish had to try keep his team going on 81 mins winger Matt Hall who had ran himself into the ground was replaced by Chris Cordery in a straight swap on the left & rovers went 4-4-2 with Thompson and Fyer up top cordery beeches Woodgates Naish in the middle And in the 88th min rovers had a throw on the right hand side CM Lewis Woodgates tackled the defender who had won the ball from the throw in Woodgates drove forward into the box and squared it back to Thompson who ran into the box and had a nice finish to make it 2-2
Rovers deserved that goal and at least ET
In the last min rovers had some last minute defending with blokes diving into block efforts and cleared afforts away from near the goal line.
FT
EXTRA TIME
Rovers had the best of extra time Cordery ran thought and squared it to Thompson who couldn't get a shoot off Cordery went though again and squared it to Thompson at back post but the defender cleared the ball
Thompsom had a half chance when the GK drop the ball and just went wide.
At the end of ET it was still 2-2 and went to penalties in this order the pens was taken
Grosvenor Rovers
Missed (1) scored (PARR)
Scored (2) scored (THOMPSON)
Scored (3) scored (FRYER)
Scored (4) scored (D.BEECHES)
Scored (5) scored (WOODGATES)
Won 5-4 on pens
MOTM
WOODGATES & BOOL
