Cringle Athletics first win
On a cold Sunday afternoon Cringle Athletic faced their direct opponent EYN. For the first time this season Cringle Athletic had a game against a team outside the top five places in the division, when facing EYN who were still looking for their first points of the season.
Jake replaced the injured Florin in goal, while Aaron and Reece were our centre backs ,George and Shon fulfilled the fullback role and Robin ,Jack ,Reo and Gull formed a diamond midfield formation today, top scorer Conor and new signing Sam Davies needed to score the goals.
Cringle started brightly, trying to impose themselves on the game, and pressed EYN from the start. EYN were keen to get forward, but equally, Cringle was adept in their attacks, and eventually created an opening which fell to striker Sam Davies who took control and coolly placed the ball into the corner of the net away from the diving keeper.1-0 after 6 minutes. Cringle began to find more space as they became more dominant. With good work in midfield from Reo, Jack and Gull EYN hardly touched the ball, but EYN created their first chance of the game after 25 minutes, however found Cringles stand in goalkeeper Jake up to the task on this occasion, but three minutes later he was beaten when a ball over the top was met by the EYN striker who struck the ball into the net, luckily the referee called for offside. This was a warning for Cringle. EYN turned up the pressure in the last 10 minutes of the first half but didn't manage to get passed Reece and Aaron, and so the halftime score was 1-0 in favour of Cringle Athletic.
In the second half Cringle had chances to double their lead, but were unable to take them as Gull, who replaced Sam, missed two open-net chances. EYN were now starting to find their feet and began to create a few chances but Shon and George were defending well and seemed to have everything under control until Cringle conceded a free kick. This long range free kick was taken by their captain and unfortunately landed in Cringles net. Score was 1-1 after 60 minutes.
EYN made a double substitution and two pairs of fresh legs seemed to put some energy back into the side and they began dominating the game, and from a corner, EYN’s defender headed the ball against the post. However two minutes later Conor Murray scored the releasing 2-1. After a defensive mistake, Conor intercepted the ball and scored his fifth goal of the season. Now Cringle was using their wings to great effect, with Alfie and Robin sending over a steady stream of crosses to an area where Cringle had an obvious speed advantage over the defenders. But Gull and Dylan couldn't quite finish today.
In the 80th minute, Reo had the chance to make it 3-1. After a good pass from
Dylan, Reo should have finished it himself but decided to pass it to Gull, who was in an offside position and the goal got ruled out. But in the 90th minute we finally managed to score the 3-1, after Reo curled in a corner, Jack managed to get his head onto it and found the net.
The burning question remained as to how Gull Malik could not find his way onto the score sheet given the number of chances he was presented with.
However with everyone playing really well, we hope to continue this style of play against next week's opponent Flash Gorton.
Man of the match: Aaron for his excellent defensive work
Happy coach and King Duffy
