DJE booked their place in the Quarter Final of the London Cup today after making hard work of a poor Watersedge Park team at Farlington. This was on paper, going to be a question of how many would we defeat the Div 2 strugglers by and on reflection it should have been done and dusted at half time. Coker was missing from the starting line up and there was a re jig of formation back to the 442. Tiller was demoted to Centre Back alongside Simba. Clubman and Liam filled the fullback positions. Danny was a surprise selection in the centre of midfield with Brian “Handshake” Hewitt , Taylor and Sanderson were the wide players, the prolific Barker partnered Adie in Attack.
DJE settled very quickly with some possession play and tried to suck the Watersedge Players in before the killer passes were threaded through their weak defence. Watersedge couldn’t get a foothold in the game and were panicking all over the field when they got the ball. The DJE midfield were quick in the tackle and passed the ball well. For all the good build up play DJE were presenting the finishing was yet again lacking. Various shots were ballooned over or scuffed wide and great opportunities lost with poor decision making or poor control. Watersedge literally offered nothing apart a few side footed passes down the line which were dealt with by the DJE defence without breaking a sweat.
The game was playing out in usual fashion where DJE were concerned and in usual fashion Barker lit a up a dreary game. A long ball was bought down on the Barker chest just inside the 18 yard box, Barker allowed the ball to bounce once and then coolly lobbed the Watersedge Keeper. One nil and deservedly so!
DJE looked good for their first clean sheet of the season but looking good and being good are two completely different things. Watersedge hit a long speculative ball towards their striker and with Tiller on the cover and Simba looking after the striker, DJE keeper Alby came out to collect but Unfortunaly Simba stuck out a leg and volleyed straight into his own net. 1-1 and it stayed this way up to half time. Watersedge were clearly buoyant and there wee even some cheers from a few players as they knew they should have been on the wrong side of a hammering.
Watersedge started the second half with a spring in their step and plenty of long balls for the DJE defence to deal with. Deal with them we did and then some. Simba and Tiller were the grunge twins and our 18 yard box was the mosh pit. Not even Kurt Cobain riding in on an Ice White unicorn with Elvis riding shotgun were gonna get through this defence. Anyway back to the theatre of Dreams in Farlington and there was a (mis) match being played. DJE were knocking the ball around with ease and were finding a lot of joy down down the flanks, particularly Sandersons side. There were more crosses being thrown in then a Christians Swingers party bowl but unfortunately someone forgot the Viagra as the finishing was poor. Headers, one on ones, long shots, taps ins from a yard out (Brian and Adie) weren’t converted. Barker was having one of those games but this didn’t stop him having more shots than an Alcoholic at an Aftershock taster session. This was another frustrating afternoon until Sanderson exchanged his crossing boots for some of the finishing variety. His two well taken goals eased the pressure on what could have been a cup upset. I cant remember them so all I will say is well done kidda!
Watersedge were clinging on but still had DJE scrambling at times particularly with some long balls that should have been mopped up but a lack of communication nearly gifted a goal. Alby was happy just to pick up a yellow for his troubles. DJE continued to pepper the Watersedge goal from the wide positions and the perseverance paid off when Handshake bundled home another cross thus making up for his previous miss!! Score finished 4-1 and DJE take their tally to 5 wins in a row.
