Little Paxton 1 - Raptors 0
We travelled away this morning to St Neots, to face Little Paxton at Priory Park. After confusion with yet another postcode, everyone turned up ready to go.
We set up with a strong 4-3-3 of:
GK - KP
LB - Geo CB - Shane CB - Pad RB - Jack
CM - Jason CM - Danny CM - Joe
LS - Brendan ST - Kingsley RS - Matty
With no FA referee, Little Paxtons coach had to ref the game, but that didnt stop us from getting off to a great start. Seeing most of the ball in the first half, we didnt allow Little Paxton anytime to create chances. They had a couple of corners, but they were either caught or punched away by KP.
A corner whipped in by Matty into a dangerous area, was missed by 2 Raptors players. Another corner saw Shane win the header at the back post, but the defender cleared it out.
Our greatest chance came from a kick from KP that fell to Kingsley Lambert who bulleted a shot from around 30 yards. It was heading in albeit a brilliant one handed save from the Little Paxton GK.
We did have the ball in the net, but the flag was raised for an offside.
Little Paxton were lucky to have 11 players on the pitch, as like the previous encounter, tackles were very late, with the worst being a horrible tackle on Jason, that went unpunished.
Halftime came and no changes were made.
The second half started off horribly as a ball through saw the striker the better side of Shane, and unleashing a low shot to KP's right. Although a hand was put on it, it couldnt be kept out. Instead of dropping our heads like previous weeks, we let it go and once again started dominating.
On the 60th minute, Danny was replaced with Tommy.
Chances fell to us one after the other, but we didnt capitalise on them.
Brendan Cunningham was put through beautifully, and opening his body, the ball looked destined to nestle in the back of the net, but narrowly went past the post.
Brendan then turned provider as a neat little chip to the centre of the area, saw Thomas Tompkins leap highet than the defender. Another chance that looked like pulling Raptors level, saw his header go narrowly wide of the far post.
Anothet Tommy chance saw a corner whipped in, headed by a Raptors head and fall to him. With no time to think, all he could do was put his toes on it. Again, the chance wasnt taken.
We were awarded a few freekicks around the area, which saw Kingsley hit one of them. The ball was moving all over the place and the keeper spilt it, but managed to pick up the loose ball.
The other freekick saw Jason step up and take. This time we was so close to finding the goal. A placed effort narrowly missing the post.
Then came our best chance. A ball crossed into the area, hit the Paxton defenders arm and a penalty was awarded. With Brendan, Kingsley, Tommy and Jason all on and all in the running for the top goalscorer award, Jason (who currently is leading) stepped up. With another chance that we felt was destined to even the scores, it was heartbreak as the ball sailed over the bar.
The only other sub saw Roger Fowler replace Joe Santoriello.
The whistle was blown for fulltime. 1-0 to Little Paxton. The lads played their hearts out today and I couldnt of asked for anymore ( apart from a goal). The attitude from everyone was spot on and everyone was working as a unit. I think todays performance was one of the best we have had all season, and the lads, although a loss, knew how unlucky we were and showed great professionalism and character.
Huge managers praise goes out to both Alex Connolly and Matt Bandy. Travelling to the away game and deciding that it was best not to come on as the game was so tight. These are qualities and traits that we are trying to embody in the club.
With so many great performances today, it was hard to decide on MOTM, but Man of the match today went to George Rogers. Filling im at LB, saw him boss it. Going forward, he put some dangerous balls in, and defending, kept the RM quiet all day.
Player Ratings
KP KP Patrick 8 Jack Gale 9 Shane Dennis 9 Chris Patrickson 9.5 George Rogers 10 Brendan Cunningham 9 Jason Fleeting 9.5 Joe Santoriello 9 Danny Warman 9 Matty Poulton 9 Kingsley Lambert 9 Thomas Tompkins 9 Roger Fowler 7* ( Not on long enough)
