A ruthless (and subless) Boots team ran out comfortable winners against Freebets4all FC on Southglade Rubber Crumb pitch. After beginning the game with 9 players each (with Spencer spear-heading the Freebets4all attack) both teams eventually ended with 11-a-side, although this hardly altered the outcome. Boots began brightly and dominated the game from start to finish, with everyone putting in a determined performance with periods of calm, accurate passing and resolute closing-down and shepherding.
After Patto had seen his long range effort tipped around the post and Griffin had come within inches of volleying home a corner at the near post, Man of the Match Paul Aplin opened the scoring when he powered a header into the roof of the net from Patto’s accurate corner. With confidence high, Crozier then switched play to the right wing where Olly played Aidan into the box, who took on his man and crossed onto the penalty spot for Paul to whip home a smart volley with his right foot! Boots continued to make chances but couldn’t extend their lead, with some smart, short passing between Griff, Crozier, Paul and Patto seeing the latter smash a left-footed shot off the underside of the bar with Paul struggling to get any power on the rebound, while Aidan later found himself in a one-on-one position but couldn’t slip the ball around the keeper. At the other end the Boots defence showed composure and strength to neutralise any attacks (including the movement of Spence), with Hawry-lick and SuBo excelling in the centre and the energetic Olly and Crozier providing outlets at the sides. Phil still had to make a few smart saves from long range, but looked more bored than troubled for most of the half!
With Spence returning to the Boots attack and Simon finally turning up to replace Phil in goal, Wednesday ran away with the second half as Freebets4all began to tire and bicker. Patto tormented their defence with a mazy run before interchanging with Paul on the edge of the area, who passed the ball into the net to complete his hat-trick. Patto and Paul were denied by the Freebets4all keeper from close range (both shocking misses) before a sweeping move between Crozier, Spencer (nice dink) and Aidan ended with a simple finish for Patto at the far post. Apart from one sprawling save that almost ended in disaster, Simon only had a few weak long range efforts to snaffle as the Boots defence continued to dominate.
With ten minutes remaining Olly did extremely well on the right to win the ball and play in Patto down the wing, who beat his man and sent in a swirling cross that Spencer and the keeper missed, but the unmarked Paul smashed home from a tight angle for his fourth of the game. As both teams began to tire and lose formation, Paul released Crozier down the left, who out-sprinted the beleaguered defence and squared to Patto for the sixth and final goal of the game.
