Billed as a 'TITLE CLASH' we faced probably our danger for the title this year! Or so they think, others are building Balby up to being the next 'coming' in Doncaster Sunday League football. This proved a bit of a rude awakening, they are a bit short of whats required and we were the ones to show em!!
Started today with Jimmy out ill! So Belly and Catty teamed up at centre half. Troy started at left back in place of Sime.
We started brightly and created a couple of half chances early on. Understandably it was a bit nervey. We settled best and Maddo with a good strike from 19 yards put us in front. Have some of that! Maddo and Ferg combined well and created chances for Chris Caddy and Ferg. We had to make a enforced change when Jake and Dingle decided to head butt each other. Jake coming out worse with a nice EGG on the cheek bone! (shout and do it very loud cos it hurts when a thick skulled ginger heads ye face) Simon replaced Jake.
Bit of a ball breaker on the 15 minute mark. From a free kick just inside our half. We set up quite well and looked like we had it under control. The long punt skipped off the surface and Matty miss handled it. There was a scramble and Balby managed to poke home the equaliser! What a mare! We had been dominated till this point and had been under little or no pressure.
We had a rocky spell straight after, it definately affected us, we had a couple of scrambles in our box and Belly managed to clear one off the line. But we managed to clear our heads and finish the last 15 mins of the 1st half strongly. Rodders hit the bar from a free kick. Maddo and Ferg combined to set up Ding who hit the post. We had a few other chances and could easily have been over the hill and far a way by half time.
Half Time 1-1
Left the team unchanged at half time and asked for more of the same. But a bit better ball retention would help our cause.
We continued to be on top with us dominating the midfield and Caddy and Ferg causing problems for the Balby defence. Calum managed to spark into life and bag us our 2nd and restore the lead. He outstripped the full back and lashed a cross shot throught the keeper and into the far corner. This was a crucial time for us. We needed the 3rd goal as i thought Balby looked mentally fragile and another goal would just about kill them off. Luckily for us Ferg showed a touch of class and glanced a lovely header wide of the keeper to get our third goal. We started to look fairly comfortable with Balby only mounting sporadic attacks usually on the back of us giving the ball away in bad areas!
We switched off from another breakaway and Balby managed to reduce the deficit. 2-3 made it look close and we did wobble a bit, but we do know how to win these tight games. Belief! Confidence! and Desire!
With 10 mins to go Balby pushed up trying to get the equaliser and Belly launched a long clearance for Caddy to chase. He managed to muscle the centre half get his balance and fire home a unstoppable shot! Game set and match!
FULL TIME 2 - 4
Conclusion - Some solid performances today, the back four were good but can get better with a bit of talking and organisation. Midfield strong and determined. It wasn't the beautiful football from these four today that won us it. It was the dogging and work rate. Never letting the Balby lads have a minute. Up front, class, good work, good runs nice touches and a goal apeice. The subs, spot on boys. For understanding it was hard to get some of you on today. I will use the full squad in the next two games and give everyone a good run.
