Orwell FC 0: Greshams 2
Greshams travelled to Eastward Ho hoping to continue their good form of the week before. They arrived to find the wind miraculously less than hurricane force. Other than enforced changes, the Management team stuck with those players who had travelled to Lowestoft the previous week to record a win in atrocious weather conditions; Phil came in for Millsy at left back, Neil Potter for Justin at centre half; Beardo took over between the sticks, while Sean French, making his debut, came in to the midfield in place of Tom Potter.
Orwell started the game looking the livelier. The pace of the No. 9 in particular was giving the Greshams back line a problem and in midfield, the 3 of Orwell were outnumbering the Greshams pairing of Sean French and Danno.
However, other than having to come sharply off his line, Beardo was relatively untroubled in the Greshams goal, but when called in to action, he produced a great one handed save going to his right.
With Steve B feeling the effects of being unwell during the week Greshams were struggling to impose themselves but the central midfield pair gradually took control and Greshams came into the game with Jonny getting some good crossed in from the right and Cashen failing by inches to reach a brilliant Danno through ball before the Orwell keeper.
Greshams took the lead when a great run from Frenchy saw him cut in to the box, running strongly and unchallenged. His cross – shot flew across goal and was diverted in to the net by Danno. Half time Orwell 0 – Greshams 1.
Greshams had the luxury of shuffling the pack at half time. Cashen moved to left back allowing Simon to slot in left midfield while Dave Neve came on as a straight swap for Jonny. Simon was straight in to the action with a typically strong run down the left while Dave was always a threat with his pace and touch.
Greshams had a nervous moment when a high hoof hung in the air and started its decent directly towards the top corner of the goal. With part time keeper Beardo in nets, Greshams held their collective breath as the ball seemed to take a good five minutes to come down. To everyone’s surprise including his own, Beardo simply caught the ball at full stretch like a professional.
Greshams narrowly missed doubling their lead when a Cashen corner arrived fractionally too high for Ruddsy, whose header was narrowly over. With Stevie B missing a couple and a great drive from Brett going wide it looked like the second might not come, but Greshams got a stone wall penalty when Frenchy was almost decapitated by a flying Orwell boot in the box. Stevie B, despite not having his best game, stepped up and converted the penalty superbly with supreme confidence.
From then on it was a case of seeing the game out for Greshams and with Ruddsy and Potter defending superbly, and Brett at right back having probably his best game for the Club, there were no major scares before the end. There was however time for Neil Potter to collect his customary yellow card for dissent.
