On a sunny afternoon and a perfect pitch at The Royal Agricultural College, Lakeside took on Forest Green Rovers for the third time this season with both sides having won one game each. Lakeside began the brighter of the two teams, although the early stages were scrappy and a lot of the ball was in the air. Lakeside in the 21st minute were caught with the ball at the back and were punished when a Forest Green Rovers striker pounced and picked his spot giving Forest Green Rovers a 1-0 lead. Cameron Smith saw a couple of long ranged efforts going close and Lakeside finally got on the score sheet in the 32nd minute after a fine pass from Cameron was met by Louis Hyde who calmly placed the ball into the right-hand bottom corner of the net. Lakeside’s only other chances of the half came from a couple of corners that narrowly missed the target from the heads of Sam James and Kurt Burrows. Lakeside needed to go into the second half with more purpose and start by getting the ball down on the ground. Lakeside responded well and were seeing more of the ball and with Cameron pushing up front with Louis beginning to make life more difficult for the Forest Green Rovers defence. Reward soon followed as Kurt, who was pushed out wide, beat his player and cut inside laying the ball into Louis’s path who finished a one on one to scord his second goal of the game. Three minutes later, Kurt who was again causing problems on the left-hand side beat the full back and entered into the box only to be fouled by the keeper. Dusting himself down he stepped up to convert the penalty. These two goals lifted Lakeside and they were starting to play with some sparkle. After some fine football from the back and a cheeky back heel from Harry Chitty, Cameron was on hand to score Lakeside’s forth goal of the game with a fine finish. From the restart, Forest Green Rovers closed the gap when a shot took a deflection from Harry to pull one back for the home side. Lakeside finally wrapped up the points in the 77th minute when centre midfielder Leroy Odiero picked out Louis who managed to place his efforts in the bottom right-hand corner giving him his second hat trick of the season in what was a fine performance from the striker. A much improved second half from Lakeside.
Man of the Match – Louis Hyde
Match performance 8/10
