So, onto take 2 of this last 16 clash between Croygas Phoenix Reserves and Carshalton Village (take 1 was not successful due to an extremely late cancellation – one which Jim was in particular a very vocal supporter of despite objections from others!).
The morning itself got off to a very auspicious start from a Croygas perspective. The assistant manager arriving at 9.50 to find only 5 players in the changing room (including the one who commutes in from Crawley – Reiss take note Dave B managed to get up, get ready and drive from Crawley to Wallington before you could even be bothered to get up!).
The gaffer himself, at this point emptying the contents of last night’s dinner into a BP washroom was frantically trying to call our top scorer, of whom there was no sign of and kick off 20 mins away. It later transpired that an alarm malfunction (debate around if this was technology or user related) had meant he was still comfortably in the land of nod.
This meant a reshuffle in the side and a starting line-up of Aiden in goal; back 4 of Sam-Dave B-Reeno-Adam; midfield 4 of Napoleon-Stevie Richie-Barry White-Splinter and a front two of Ross S & Charlie. The aforementioned Mr. Sleepy taking his place on and otherwise sturdy looking subs bench of Brad & Bob.
On the field of play Carshalton had a clear height and physicality advantage and they utilised to good effect to take control of proceedings, putting a lot of pressure on the Croygas players. A plethora of long throws and corners rained in on the Croygas penalty area, a combination of (sometimes) dominant keeping, headers and the occasional scramble ensured the Croygas kept Carshalton at bay. In the very limited time Gas has possession they were looking threatening however they were definitely the happier side when the half time whistle went and the score remained 0-0.
The second half began much in the same vein as the first, with Carshalton getting ever nearer that elusive goal (goalkeeping, crossbar and poor finishing when one on one ensuring parity remained). Croygas were having to dig deep and battle hard, however there was a sense that the longer the game went one, Croygas were going to get their opportunity and it was just a case of if they could take it.
About 10 mins from time Ross S broke through, forcing a decent save from the Carshalton keeper. From the resulting corner Charlie floated a cross towards the edge of the area, where our enthusiastic left back Adam Lynch attack the ball and took off, meeting the ball in mid-air and connecting perfectly with a volley that started just outside the post and curled inside leaving the Carshalton keeper with no change. A very fine finish indeed.
So 10 mins to go and Croygas only needed to hold on. The goal itself seemed to take the wind out of Carshalton who struggled to create any meaningful chances after going one down (even in the somewhat variable stoppage time calculations of the referee). The final whistle blew and the Croygas players celebrated their first quarter final appearance for a very long time (cup football has never really been our forte).
From the writers perspective these type of victories are always more enjoyable than a 5/6 goal thrashing due to the effort, teamwork and discipline required to achieve them. Big Kudos (no pun intended) to all players involved.
As for MOTM it was a very close call this week between Adam, Aiden & Sam. So close in fact I ended up drawing it out of a hat. Congratulations to the victor, commiserations to the runners up.
For some, the victory is of greater benefit as their actions have been reduced to merely a footnote in the report (in particular Reiss’ changing room antics and Reeno/Jim’s extremely questionable ping pong skills – el Capitan will be very disappointed!).
So onto the quarter final against a very good AFC Dara side, IF this level of commitment is replicated I for one will be very confident.
