A chilly Saturday morning seen us visiting Bucklers Mead to play on the 3G Astro as Pen Mills Ground suffered from a waterlogged pitch.
The Team talk went well with all the team focused and listening to what the plan of attack was going to be today, a change around was the order of play as having met Pen Mill twice already this season and losing on both occasions, we had to be strong and alive from the 1st whistle.
In between the sticks was our ever reliable Luke, a starting place at the back for Nathan along side Tom seen Jolyon push up into midfield along side George, George as Centre attack Midfield, with Connor on the left and Tyler up front.
Were off, the boys are straight in but nothing much happening in the opening minutes for either side as both teams defend well against each others attacking play, a very strong Pen Mill Midfield cuts us open in the 5th minute as they feed there front man who gets a good early shot off that produced a fine save from Luke.
A few minutes later and the Cockerels are attacking playing some neat football, George driving at there defence, Connor making ground with a great overlapping run on the outside, George neatly lays the ball into the overlapping run of Connor, Connor strikes the ball early and finds the back of the net and Coker go 1-0 up.
Pen Mill kick off and are straight into attack, the Cockerells are more than holding together well, and we are going about our own game and playing some great football, Another Coker attack finds George up front, George travels into the penalty box and is then taken down in the box, with the lino flagging for a pen its a definate Pen to Coker. but no!!! its not given by the Ref, a knowing glance from Ian the Pen Mill manager over to me told the story well, it was a dead cert Pen and one they had got away with. Then almost straight after the pen decision in the 14th minute Pen Mill hit there front man early and he cooly rifled home for 1-1.
Pen mill have got there heads up now and start playing aand pressuring well for a 2nd, the 18th minute sees some great midfield team play from Pen Mill but brilliant defending from Nathan and he sees the ball put out for a Corner. Pen Mill take a good corner kick, placing it in a dangerous area between the front post and the defender, Tom is there, he goes to clear his line, but the whipped in low ball sees Tom have to flick out his right foot to try and clear the ball, the ball hits Tom and unluckily for Tom it finds the back of our net. 2-1 to Pen Mill.
Half time is fast approaching and Coker get a Corner in the 24th minute from a good team attack, A lovely floated delivery by Tom finds Connor arriving at the back post who smashes home a header in a packed penalty box for 2-2 right on half time. This is a very tight game with both teams playing very well.
2nd half sees a couple changes for us, No Jolyon so Reece attacking on the left of Midfield and Jack filling in at right back alongside Tom, Again not much in it in the opening exchanges, but then Pen mill hit us hard on the counter down the right and in the 28th minute they go 3-2 up with a well worked move and team goal. They then had a free kick about 18-20 yds out, up stepped Brad, he fired off a fierce quality shot that had everyone beat. lucky for us the shot just tipped the top of the crossbar and flew over.
All to do again for Coker, but the team had belief in there play and there heads did not drop once, on they battled, they all worked very hard for each other as a good team unit.
George was doing his best to control the game in the center of the park whenever he could, holding up the ball and linking play well, and it was George again who provided a through ball on the 35th for Reece to run onto, Reece took up a great position ran on beating a high Pen Mill defence and only had the keeper to beat, he finished neatly with his left peg for 3-3.
The Cockerels now had there heads up and were playing good football winning most of the 1st and 2nd balls, it started to show, the opposition started bickering amongst themselves. A firm and fair statement from Ian to his Pen Mill players soon put a stop to it, but we had them rattled, we applied more attacking pressure and then Tom sent a quality through ball to Tyler on the 43rd minute, with his lightning pace Tyler beat there two defenders and then had a decent strike across the goal to the far left post, the keeper got something on it, he took the sting out of the shot, but the ball still travelled on past him, in what was an agonising slow motion goal to watch, the ball crept nearer and nearer the goal line, a great defensive recovery run from one of the Pen Mill lads, who tried his heart out to get back and clear the ball, but just as he got there the ball went over the line. 4-3 to Coker.
Coker then decided to shut up shop, bringing Nathan back on for our front man Tyler, going 3 at the back with Nath, Jack and Tom, the 3 in midfield worked hard as defending midfielders, it was now tough going for them as we now had no outlet or front man to hit. The last few minutes seemed to be all Pen Mill with the odd break from us but we carried on defending well and we seen the game out.
Well done boys very very proud of you all.
The Cockerels battle for a third place finish continues,
now unbeaten in 7 what a fantastic run boys.
What a great great game of football played by all the lads of Pen Mill and East Coker Cockerels.
