Lining up in our now favoured 4-5-1 formation engine starting line up looked strong seeing mini moff partnering gaz at the back with stuey and ginger dave right and left backs. The same midfield line up that won a point against WD were once again in attendance with the ever running andy c leading the charge up front.
Leam juniors were a very tall team and also mid table second division which made me think we would be in for a difficult morning but one we could pull a shock out from.
From the get go our midfield was dominating play and really moving the ball around at pace and with good accuracy. The engine mentality of playing nice on the deck short passing football was working well against a fairly fit looking juniors team. Engine dominated the opening 20 minutes and the juniors were rattled and desperately clearing their lines. Jimmy P and Ash were seeing lots of the ball and whipping crosses in to andy c.
The formation was working , all the lads were holding there positions well and moving as a unit. We were looking far superior and completely dominating the midfield. Ren and steve were pulling no punches in the tackle and yan was covering plenty of ground working well in the holding position to allow the constant threat of steve to surge forward.
I didn’t see the goal as I was getting cold and making myself a coffee but im told andy c got hold of it, moved the ball and fired home with confidence ! Engine 1 Juniors 0 , coffee spilt !
This was a major blow to the confidence of the juniors and we pressed for a second. Jimmy P had a one on one saved by the on rushing keeper and the tall defence was doing well to stop engine going two nil up. It was great to see the engine dominating a div two team in such a way, moving as a unit and letting the ball do the work.
The only threat the juniors were offering was there constant efforts to thread the ball through the middle to their striker. The defensive line ensured he was offside more times than I refilled my coffee mug ;-) the right winger was fairly quick and they were looking to use him a lot but ginger dave basically had him in his pocket and was having his game of the year. Towards the end of the second half juniors had a point black shot saved by the brilliant sparrow and then a succession of corners (which we are weak at defending) was dealt with by sparrow and mini moffs aerial dominance.
Half time come and engine were well in control. The team was sent out exactly the same looking for a second. We had ten mins of not being able to keep the ball, weve done this before after half time and we need to sort it out, we struggled to clear our lines on the bobbly pitch and unfortunately a bouncing ball fell to the juniors striker and it was one all. This was really brought on by our failure to clear the lines and not the ability of the juniors. For the rest of the half it was a see saw affair. Idi was brought on to regalvanise the midfield for ren who had had a good solid 60 mins and into the last 30 we went. We had chances, noticeable a couple of efforts from steve and one from jimmy. I felt the winner would be ours and it would come through ash and stu on the right. To be fair juniors had the better of the last ten mins with several long throws well defended and another couple of good saves.
The ref (who was losing his marbles) blew for the 90 and into extra time we went. The first half was again nip and tuck , we went close and their defence was falling apart. They brought on two subs which seemed to weaken them but the engine couldn’t make the breakthough. Into the second half and fatigue was understandable setting into both teams. With one minute left to go I drew up our penalty takers when disaster struck. We know what happened next, it can happen to anyone (I know this feeling all to well from the liberal game which spookily was the same ref, maybe hes unlucky for us!!!!!) and they scored with the last kick of the game on a one on one. To say it was completely against the run of play and out of kilter with the dominance we had over them would be an understatement. Their gaffer actually apologised to me afterwards !!!! unbelievable that we aren’t in the next round but that’s football and the good thing is that if we play like that from now on we will get ourselves out of trouble in the league. Bring on keni town, it’s a massive game next week lads
- We need to still improve at attacking and defending corners (we are a small team)
- We gave away to many free kicks but that’s it, to be honest everyone was brilliant ! ! ! ! ! Best weve played all season and if we can keep that team fit and available every week (as well as adding 2-3 more to strengthen us) we will survive div 3 and push on for sure. PUE !!!!!!
