We approached this weeks game quite skeptically with Thornaby being an unknown team to us so the game could not have been looked at as an easy game. Thornaby, as a team only had 4 players thats they could field so, in order to give our players more of a challenge, we matched their number of players, leading us to play with no striker and only a defender and two wingers.
The game starts quickly with both sets of teams stringing together passes and one specific Thornaby player who provided their main threat in both attack and defense. As the game progresses, Oscar finds an opportunity to break and takes it by bombing down the flank and putting the ball in the back of the net, 1 - 0 Synners. The battle continues and we are let off when a Thornaby player scuffs a sure chance and sends the ball just wide of our goal. Capitalising off of this mistake from Thornaby, George Grounds gets the ball and scores, catching them on a counter attack, 2 - 0 Synners. The game quickly kicks back off and Synners manage to get a hold of the ball almost immediately. A brilliant bit of team play allows multiple passes to go from man to man, slowly making our way up the field and ending with another George Grounds goal, really taking what we have been focusing on in training into practice, 3 - 0 Synners. We continue the hard work on the pitch as George Grounds manages to have a first time shot straight into their keepers face, an unlucky miss. As the game goes on, Thornaby's main man manages to have a good shot from a tight angle and scores, 3 - 1. The game now looks to be more of a tight contest. However, a brilliant bit of skill from George Grounds frees up Theo in the middle to receive the ball and get an easy goal, 4-1 Synners. Straight from kickoff, the ball is won back for Synners and the team all presses together, causing a scramble at the edge of their box. Theo's good close control allows him to quickly get out of the group and thump it into the back of the net, 5-1 synners. The whistle blows for half time after an unbelievable display from the team.
The game restarts and we begin how we left off. This team has an unusual amount of left footed players so at this point, our attack were all left footed, so when Theo drives down the right flank and sees and opportunity to score, he tries to cut inside however, a Thornaby player blocks this so Theo is unable to use his left and does not use his right. After this, Theo quickly redeems himself and puts away the ball deep into the left corner, 6-1 synners. Oscar fly kicks their player but its not a foul thanks to the tenner I slipped Cole the ref at half time. The ball goes to Lucas just outside of our box and he shoots for some reason and it goes in, a second in a row from our own half, 7-1 synners.Theo's solo dribble off Jude's good pass allows for a tight angled outside of boot goal, 8-1 synners. We start stringing together passes but one gets astray and Thornaby capitalise and score off of this error, 8-2. The game restarts and Thornaby break, as practiced in the warm-up, George Thompson runs out his goal towards the Thornaby player and gathers ball well. Thornaby get ball back and high shot makes it unsaveable for Thommo and they get another goal back, 8-3. Casper quickly gets the ball off a goal kick and scores brilliant long range goal, 9-3 synners. Thornaby begin to attack but a great defensive play from Casper stops what would have been a sure goal for Thornaby. A Thornaby player gets the ball back and has a power shot that finds its way past the goal line, 9 - 4. The final whistle blows and the game ends after a well fought battle. Men of the match Theo Harvey - Brilliant attacking play to get his countless goals and great tracking back all game, a brilliant all rounded performance, well done. George Grounds - A great performance put in at all of the positions up front to get his goals and some brilliant passing plays, well done George.
