We travelled to our local rivals in anticipation of another fiercely contested game and we were not disappointed on a bright day with a heavy boggy pitch making it hard to play.
The game burst into life in the first couple of minutes when Mikey picked up the ball 30 yards out, he jinxed his way past 2 midfielders then 2 defenders and slid a hard low shot from just inside the box under the keeper to make it 1-0. A midfield battle then ensued for the next 15 minutes with Zahir, Kris and Erim dominating their opponents. When we got the ball wide Josh E and Lewis were causing their fullbacks problems with their direct play, twice Josh got past his man, but Luke and Mikey couldn’t quite get on the end of the crosses. 22 minutes in and we double the lead, Kris picks up the ball in midfield and played out to the right wing, Josh drives inside and Kris continues his overlapping run, Josh feeds a perfect pass inside the full back and Kris takes a touch before beating the keeper at his near post 2-0. The opposition had their moments with the ball, forcing a couple of corners, but Dom was relatively quiet, but assured when called upon. Isaac, Fred and Hayden were solid as a rock and gave absolutely nothing away in their defending. We almost had a 3rd when Freddie passed forward to Luke who’s deft header released Lewis down the left, a burst of pace took Lewis past the defender and Mikey looked set for a tap in, but the keeper managed to get to the cross just ahead of him. 5 minutes before half time another long hopeful ball was pumped into our box, Isaac wins the first header, Erim was about to clear and was fouled, but the inconsistent referee waved play on and we conceded. H-T 2-1 The 2nd half became a fight with both teams battling to gain the upper hand, the pitch provided a battle with a number of players slipping over. Ben, James and Josh DK came on for Luke, Lewis and Josh E to freshen things up and immediately James beat his man and delivered a teasing cross which found Josh DK bursting into the box, instead of heading it he tried a volley and it went just wide. Ben then fed Mikey who again beat his man and slipped in Josh again, but this time his shot was well saved. JJ came on for Erim in a CDM role and was excellent breaking up any potential attacks before it reached our defenders. James should of made the game safe when a great team move saw Zahir play into Mikey’s feet, Mikey played in Ben, who slipped it back to Zahir who drew the last defender and played in James 12 yards out, he agonisingly dragged his shot wide. 3 minutes later and James made the game safe when again he found himself in acres of space just inside the left hand side of the box and he drilled his low shot into the bottom corner. F-T 3-1 A superb team performance on a difficult pitch, we won every battle and our quality showed with 3 excellent goals. MoM goes to both Mikey and Kris. Mikey led the line well and was a constant thorn in the opponents side. Kris was everywhere and capped a great performance with a deserved goal.
