The first friendly of the 2012 Pre-Season saw Boots start strongly as they looked to use the width of the pitch and release the pace of Rich, Bally, Aidan and debutant Tom against Caythorpe. For most of the half Si and (other debutant) Justin controlled the midfield well, while the defence swept up any Caythorpe attacks. The breakthrough came from a hoofed clearance by Tooby which caught the Caythorpe defence napping; Bally sprinted away from the defence to claim the ball and slot past the keeper. After the goal, the end of the half continued in much of the same vein, with Frumpy and the defence marshalling well with no real pressure other than a few long shots from Caythorpe.
The second half started slowly for Boots, who began to lose their shape all over the pitch and gave Caythorpe too much time on the ball. The inevitable equaliser came from the Caythorpe keeper’s clearance, which was allowed to reach their winger, and with the defence out of shape they whipped a cross past Croz which their striker emphatically finished into the top bin, giving Frumpy no chance. The second Caythorpe goal came from a goal kick; Bally won the header but was unlucky to see it go backwards over Licks’ head, and their striker ran on and finished, once again giving Frumpy little chance. Having fallen behind, Boots picked up their game and Bally, Aidan and Tom all went close. Finally Boots scored an equaliser when good work from Rich Allen and Croz led to the latter crossing the ball which hit Phil Gandy’s knee and dropped over the line! Towards the end both teams could have won it, with Pete hitting a great volley which was blocked by a defender, Tom getting another long range shooting chance which narrowly went wide and Tooby coming close from a quick Pete corner. Caythorpe also had a glaring chance to win it when their two strikers went clean through, and one crossed to the other who missed an open goal from a yard!
Overall it was a very good run out on an extremely hot afternoon, with Boots showing passages of good play and used the pitch to their advantage. Although our fitness showed in the second half it still needs to be worked on in the three weeks before the new seasons starts.
The game was all followed by a trip to the local pub where Pete nearly got in a fight with a random drunk guy who hit his car with a newspaper!
