Once the Smoke cleared, GSK came back to claim victory over Ferring Reserves
On a day when obstacles seemed determined to get in the way and conspire against them, GSK notched a 2-1 win away at Glebelands to preserve their unbeaten start to their Premier campaign against a determined Ferring Reserves.
Manager Jeffery, fresh from the known absences of Lew and Coxy (injured) as well as Baumfield and Leakie (known to be unavailable), was further forced to contend with on the day angst which saw Blowlo and Boner AWOL, ultimately forcing him to re-shuffle the pack to only field 7 of the starters that featured in the flowing opening day performance vs. Sompting, bringing LaRusso and Smokey into a changed back line, with Cheese and Hanksy given wide-berths in a reworked midfield. Ripper was once again asked to ply his trade as a lone striker.
It was imperative that everyone mucked in. Now…reports aren't places to out individuals, as we're a team. However from the off it was clear that Smokey in particular hadn't read this "all-for-one, one-for-all" team script, thus I scribe with a clear conscience in my damnation. Being asked to play in an unfamiliar left-back role, in what can only be described as one of the most bizarre, lazy, selfish and downright rudest performances I've played alongside on a football pitch, he sulked his way through 25 mins of football, barely breaking into a jog, clearly not wanting to be there and making this very obvious to his team-mates.
Maybe it was understandable then, why this all lead to a lack-lustre start from the visitors. Not helped also by a poor pitch, GSK's free-flowing football and quick-paced start of the Sompting game had been replaced by the inertia of this one, particular in the middle of the park. Touches were bad, passes went astray and the frustration was obvious as Ripper was cutting a lone figure upfront. Only Hanks was looking useful but he was having his hands full playing in front of his aforementioned AWOL, attitude-problemed left-back.
On the other hand, without being overly creative, Ferring had come out with a desire, energy and focus seemingly lacking from GSK, who to a man all seemed to look perplexed as to why they just couldn't get their game going. To make matters worse, Fluff went down early in a recurrence of a knee injury and although he played on, this hampered him for the rest of the game.
Ferring, deservedly at this stage, took the lead on 20 mins. A ball played out to their right, led to a non-challenge from Smokey allowing the right-mid to skip past him. A ball was cut back to Ferring's O'Reilly and despite the best efforts of LaRusso and Penfold to close him down, he sent an un-erring finish out of the reach of Wayner in goal. 1-0 Ferring.
An infuriated Jeffery's response was immediate, subbing the woeful Smokey for his attitude - applauded by LaRusso, Penfold and in particular Hanks, all of whom were having to frustratingly make up for Smokey's nonchalance. His replacement was Williams (Den), which meant a further re-shuffle to a 4-4-2, Fluff now moving to an unfamiliar right-mid berth and the ever accommodating Cheese (why couldn't Smokey have this attitude?) being shifted to left-back. Without setting the world alight initially, this began to shake GSK into some sort of life, Ripper a couple of moments later coming close from a Hughes through ball. Just before the break, Fluff was played in and sent a lovely header over the keeper which looked to be all but in until the keeper, impressively tipped it over the bar at the last minute...but GSK went in halftime 1-0 down.
Half-Time: Ferring Res 1-0 GSK.
Jeffery again opted for calm words in his halftime appraisal, asking the team to start winning 2nd balls, look after the ball in possession, talk to each other (so quiet again!) and for the frontmen to make more diagonal runs to pull Ferring's centre-back out, who was having an assured game winning everything in the air. To be honest though, the GSK players knew they'd let themselves down 1st half, maybe as a result of not being able to shake off mentally the distractions of earlier, and were keen to put it right.
Despite early 2nd-half knocks to Nicholas (thigh) and Hughes (ankle), it was clear GSK were now playing with renewed vigour and although again not reaching the one-touch heights of the Sompting game, were starting to dominate their opponents. The back line looked solid, Marv was winning everything in the air 2nd half in the middle of the park, Den and Mikey were pulling their back line out of place, the former in particular causing Ferring trouble with his bursts of pace in wide areas. Ferring faces showed that they knew they faced a sterner test now. Hughes again picked out Mikey with a long ball but he agonisingly placed his header wide. Was it going to be one of those days?
NO! GSK equalised on 55 mins and bizarrely it came from Ferring's first meaningful attack of the 2nd half. A nice Ferring build-up resulted in a through ball, which was cut out by LaRusso. He got away from the attacker, broke out of defence and picked out Den with an intelligent through ball. Faced with a defender and keeper to beat, Den still had a lot to do. However, he outpaced the centre-back and rounded the keeper. Although he looked to have driven himself too wide, the silent assassin still managed to drive the ball home from an acute angle. 1-1!
This riled Ferring and a niggly game ensued as they felt hard done by...lord knows why as they'd hardly had a kick 2nd half. New boy Danny Harding, who had impressed in training the previous week, replaced a rather miffed Hanks, as manager Jeffery sought renewed energy levels.
Den was now causing all sorts of problems with his pace unnerving the Ferring back line and with Mikey's work rate alongside him, they were making GSK a lot more difficult to deal with. GSK's 2nd came as no surprise to anyone, apart from the staunchest Ferring supporters. A long ball released the once again fleet-footed Den, wide on the right. Egged on to take his man on 1-on-1, he duly did so and was felled in the box winning a penalty on 70 mins, much to the dismay of Ferring.
Ripper may be searching for confidence but there was no evidence of that here as he calmly picked up the ball, placed it on the spot and sent the keeper the wrong way. Ferring 1-2 GSK. No squeaky bum there!
Hughes went over on his ankle again, which meant a further re-shuffle and it really was a case of square pegs in round holes now. Nicholas went to right-back, Mikey to left wing and Jeffery came on and into a midfield 3 with Marv and Fluff. Ferring, searching for the equaliser, now stuck an extra man up top but despite huffing and puffing, assured defending meant they still weren't forcing Wayner into making any saves.
Den then had a chance to kill the game but stuck his chance wide after again cutting in from the right. Now resorting to long balls to form attacks, Ferring won themselves a free-kick just outside the box, which they sent just wide to the relief of GSK. Then in desperation, Ferring sent their keeper up for the final minute and he mustered a speculative long-range effort which Wayner eventually saved comfortably, allowing GSK to secure themselves the victory they'd merited after sorting themselves out given that woeful start.
Full-Time: Ferring Res 1-2 GSK.
Despite never really being at their flowing best GSK still secured the win, which given the pre-match (and in-match) problems has to be seen as a positive result. Manager Jeffery will hope that he'll have a more settled build-up to next week's cup game vs. Shoreham RBL but has to await the fitness of several members of his squad with Fluff, Nicholas, Hughes, Coxy and Lew all doubtful. I think he'd prefer his team not to have to keep coming back from behind as well!
