With an unprecedented 11 players unavailable Baz had to tinker positionally , bringing Rich Jones and Stephen Cooper into the line up for this Rochell Cup tie against an experienced Langley Gold side from Division 5 . Hat trick hero Ginge Phillips warmed the bench as Baz challenged his strike force to raise themselves from Thursdays woeful outing . The opening exchanges looked positive as we lorded it a bit and once again produced some great moves down the left flank . In contrast to his form last Sunday , Robbo's final cross lacked quality as our parsimonious flanker became increasingly frustrated . As the half wore on we became impatient as passes went astray time after time and we began to panic . With seconds to go before the interval , Dane Hurley megsed the Gold centre back and drew the keeper to the ground before passing it into the net to give us a 1-0 lead that we barely deserved. The second half was even worse. You could hear a pin drop and both teams made ridiculous errors ...hardly putting a move together . The frustration on the sidelines crept into the hearts of players and you could feel the uncertainty creeping into our play . Adam Hearn , drafted back into centre midfield , did his best to get us going and Anton won the ball time after time in the air to keep us afloat at times. As we flagged even more, Ricky Owen came out flapping and the visitors scored a deserved equaliser. Super sub Ginge Phillips came on just after the hour mark and soon put himself on the score sheet when he headed in a cross from Robbo(I think) . On the sideline Baz was busy trying to look after his balls as the Hydes Rd mafia once again tried to get hold of his equipment . Despite our lethargic play it didnt look like Gold had enough to equalise until an innocent cross from the right evaded our entire defence and crept in under Mad Ricks bar . Our custodian had already been forced to deny Gold a victory with a fine save to keep us in the game . This meant that probably the worst game of football ever seen at Hydes had to be endured for another half hour .... by now Baz had been up since 6 mulling over the line up and extra time was the last thing any of us wanted. More of the same ensued - we looked absolutely leaden footed ..thankfully so did our opponents ...both teams having played a game every 3 days in August . It was now a case of finding the energy and guile to avoid the penalty shoot out but it looked inevitable as Gaz and Luke debated their 5 selections for the spotkicks. The twist in the tale was yet to come as Ginge Phillips chased a diagonal ball and struck it towards the onion bag only to be denied brilliantly by the excellent Gold keeper . However our flame haired new man reacted quickly as the ricochet span off and Phillips guided home an unlikely winner to gearn us an excruciatingly narrow passage into the next round . All we can do is take the positive from this boys and that is the win . Respect to Langley Gold who matched us all the way and got no reward from the game ....how many times has that happened to us ? Hydes again next week lads in the League . I have called off training because we need a good rest now and regather for Sunday . BAZIN !!!!!- Comments Welcome
