Casuals and Pelham came out 3-1 winners of their Bert Yabsley first round cup game against Westbury Boca Seniors. Pelham were hoping to follow up from arguably their best performace of the season last week and they didn't disappoint, carrying on that momentum into this week. Very much like last week, Pelham started the game brightly and were the better of the two sides from the off. Pelham put the opposition under pressure from the off and didnt let them breathe for a second, as soon as they had the ball at their feet a player was on top of them shutting them down. Straight from the off the pressure payed off and Pelham carved out a good amount of chances in the first 10 minutes. Westbury Boca struggled to put two passes together and just couldn't clear their lines and get out their half. However after minutes Westbury Boca did finally manage to get out their half as one of their players picked the ball up on the half way and ran at the Pelham defence. Unfortunately Pelham were caught cold as he managed to run past 3 players and slot the ball past the Monk. Pelham knew that goal was undeserved and against the run of play, so they kept their heads up going in search of a quick response. That quick response came as James Bosher played a great ball through for Danny McGurk who finished cooly into the far corner,a replica of his goal last week. Pelham were back level with the scores at 1-1 and were not going to make the same mistake of letting the opposition get back into the game. The rest of the half was dominated by the home side with some lovely football on the floor, as well as carrying on the talking, work rate and organisation from last weekends game. Westbury Boca rode their luck as Pelham carved out plenty of chances but just couldnt find the back of the net. Finally Pelham got their rewards and after being camped in Westbury Bocas half for pretty much the whole game, the home side took the lead on the half hour mark as a good run down the right hand side from Tim Shaw was cut across for Rob Parrish. His effort was blocked but from the re-bound he managed to get enough on it to lay it back to Dan Boyce who slotted the ball into the far corner making it 2-1 to Pelham. Pelham continued to dominate the rest of the half creating more chances and came close on a few occassions, most notably from Rob Parrish, a Tim Shaw header and a Gavin Brace effort that struck the bar. Pelham fully deserved to go into the break with the lead.
Pelham started the second half the same as the first and didnt let Westbury Boca have any time on the ball, putting them under immense pressure. They continued to play some lovely football and once again carved out so many chances which they couldnt take. Again after seeing a lot of possession they got a fully deserved third goal with Liam Perry playing in Rob Parrish to make it 3-1 to the home side. Thats how the game finished unfortunately as the score line didnt reflect the way the game went, but a well deserved win.
A good win again today lads and as i said we carried the performance and momentum over from last week to this week. Some of the best football i have seen us play in a long time today and no one panicked on the ball at all. A fully deserved win but the scoreline should have been a lot more considering they couldnt get out their half for pretty much the entire game. Lets keep this run going until the end of the year with two big league games left against Birchwood Rangers and Saffron Hawks. Tough call for man of the match today but Mick has given it to Sam Kellow, who was solid on his first game back for a couple of months. Lets keep it going lads, and onto next week. COYCAP.
