Woodlands Park on a fresh autumnal Sunday morning saw us meet early for the trip to Cray Wanderers Stadium for the 1st round of the Kent Junior Trophy against Footscray Lions who finished 8th last year in Kent Suburban League Senior Div.
With so much going on in 120 minutes of pure drama and excitement it would be very easy and unjust of me to summarise in bullet points with 3 memorable moments:
1) Our 3rd goal by Rich Saville, a truly stunning left foot strike that was in from the moment it left his boot.
2) Stunning save by Rikki late in extra time to add to the 2-3 quality saves he made during the match.
3) We won on penalties! Jameo with the all important winning penalty.
We started well, the first 20 minutes or so, which has become the norm, was all us. Footscray unable to get close we deservedly took the lead Ryan lofted pass finding Rich Saville who broke the offside trap and found the net well. Footscrays main contribution was a few late tackles most notably on Rikki, who played out the majority of the game with a dead leg. The ref seemed intent on keeping his cards in his pocket, Sam was the first to receive a yellow for obstruction when much worse had previously occured. Our second came after a rash foul on Nath by their defender resulted in a free kick on the right hand side of the Footscray box, Nath taking the kick delivered a quality ball straight onto Plumbs head for his first goal, in his first game of the season - a killer blow was struck and we seemed in control of the match.
But Footscray showed their quality, strength and confidence due to their 100% winning start to their season - all 3 were evident as they pushed forward, sending awkward diagonal balls onto their forwards who were increasingly becoming a threat. Our defence was beginning to be tested, especially in wide areas and was undone just before half time as Daren made a rash tackle inside the box, resulting in a penalty, yellow card and painful injury with a swollen knee - Eddie came on for Daren after a quick re-shuffle of positions, Footscray scoring the penalty for a much needed boost just before halftime for 2-1, the score just about stayed that way as an edgy Fleet made it to half time with the help of Rikki who produced an absolute quality point blank save to see us into half time our lead intact.
We certainly knew we were in a game as a tense half time team talk reiterated our need for clear and calm heads, with our focus mainly on getting the ball into feet and running off their slow defence.
The second half got off to the worse possible start as Footscray levelled for 2-2, suspect defending allowed the forward in to lob over Rikki. We instantly upped our game and produced our best spell of football of the whole game, the tempo increased as we found crisp and accurate passes all over the pitch, our 2 forwards having their best spell of the match, Richs good work was rewarded with a strike of true class, seizing on a bouncing awkward ball played in by Mark Crane and with his back to goal, he rolled the defender and unleashed an unstoppable left foot strike that was in from the moment it left his foot. Dave and I were very fortunate to have a great view and both knew it was in as soon as it left his foot. The home team manager, to his credit applauded it too. Moments later it was 4-2 as a quick throw and 1-2 between Mark Crane and Nath found Sav on the byline in space who squared it for Sam to apply the finish from 6yds out - an excellent passing move. Our team were at full steam and we made it 5-2 good work on the right from Nath found Plumb who scored his 2nd goal with a neat finish with approx 25 mins remaining.
But we seemed to step off and forget a few basics of defending as a team, in wide areas we didnt seem to track back and Footscray pushed 4 forward, in an attempt to get some sort of consolation goal, but their belief quickly grew one goal was followed by another and another to end 90 mins 5-5, a disappointing end to 90 minutes in which we, on 2 ocassions, had healthy leads.
Extra time started as we made our 2nd and final change Hambo on for Sam, Eddie coming into the middle, Hambo onto the left wing, both teams rode their luck as there were a few chances to score, most notably for Footscray right at the death as Rikki produced a top notch save - arcing and running backwards to tip a shot/lob onto the bar - a top, top save - Rikki, most worthy of the man of the match award. Extra time finished and it would be decided on penalties.
Penalties:
Footscray scored 1-0
S.Plumb missed (GK saved) 1-0
Footscray scored 2-0
R.Saville scored 2-1
Footscray missed (saved by Rikki) 2-1
N.Ringer scored 2-2
Footscray missed (Hit Post) 2-2
E.Reynolds scored 2-3
Footscray scored 3-3
M.James scored 3-4
Ebbsfleet through to the next round away to Eltham Progress (Orpington/Bromley League).
A thoroughly entertaining match, which we deservedly won, a special mention to Ryan who played out of position for the majority of the match without any complaint.
