On a cold, gusty morning in Norman Park it was the hosts that started better, having the lion’s share of possession and creating a few early chances – one of which beat our GK at his near post and gave the hosts the lead they thoroughly deserved. 1 – 0 down, 5 minutes played.
It was a shame that it needed Haddonfield to concede a goal for them to actually get their act together and get back to playing the brand of football that has brought them so much success over the last month. The slick passing eventually returned, creating two excellent chances, one of which a long range effort from Matt Seamons that came unbelievable close to finding the top corner but instead clipped the crossbar. The other, a dangerous cross to the far post from the right-hand side of the pitch, met by the head of Matt Bell who unselfishly put the ball across the face of goal anticipating that the charging John O’Connor would’ve had nothing more than a simple tap in to put the visitors level. Unfortunately there was juice a little too much juice on the header and John’s run was a fraction late. The confidence was back. Haddonfield were opening up the opposition’s defence with relative ease; an equaliser seemed imminent.
We were comfortable, a little too comfortable it would appear and complacency had obviously set in. A pretty innocuous counter-attack from the hosts down the left resulted in their striker having bundles of room allowing him the time to shape a placed shot into the bottom-right corner leaving CT with no chance of making a save. 2-0 down and 25 minutes gone. It would be fair to say that BR’s second goal was against the run of play, but it was a good build-up, followed by a tidy finish. They punished us for our contemptuous attitude. Bromley Robins had us on the ropes and the Haddonfield team knew that we had to drastically improve if we stood to get anything from this game.
35 minutes gone, 2 - 0 down. Bromley Robins were doing their utmost to preserve the lead they’ve grafted hard for. Although Haddonfield were keeping the ball well, there was no end product and frustration was setting in. A couple of shots fired over the bar from Scott and Stuart were the only efforts of note. The Haddonfield front line continued to put pressure on the BR defence and their toil paid off as a defensive mix up with BR’s full back and keeper led to Chris Willis hammering home into an empty net, taking full advantage of an unforced error. 2 - 1.
With momentum and a boost of confidence on our side, we continued to pile on the pressure, finding space all over the pitch. A perfectly weighted through-ball from John O’Connor found Stuart Lee’s path. One-on-one with the keeper Stu opted to take the ball around the keeper leaving him an empty net to pass into. Well, that was the plan. The keeper had other ideas – making sure Stuart Lee definitely couldn’t find the back of the net!! BR’s keeper made a tackle which wouldn’t have been out of place in UFC! Completely taking Stuart out, I don’t even think going for the ball crossed the keeper’s mind. A tackle worthy of a straight red in everyone’s eyes except the referee who deemed that the offence warranted a yellow, even though he fouled the last man and denied a certain goal. Free kick was hit straight at the wall and BR cleared.
The BR keeper saw his marching orders a few minutes after the dangerous tackle which earned him his first yellow card with a late tackle on Haddonfield striker Chris Willis. The resulting penalty was confidently smashed down the middle by Scott Mulgrew. 2 - 2 with 2 minutes to go until the interval. BR down to 10 men.
With the intention of going into the second half level so we could regroup and assess our far from perfect fist half, we played the ball around the middle and the back until we were dispossessed, giving BR the chance to form an attack down their right wing. Two crosses came into our box in quick succession, the first was headed away, the second found the head of their striker who competently tucked the ball into the back of the net on the stroke of half time. 3 – 2 down, 1 man up. Half time.
Haddonfield understandably were the dominating team at the beginning of the second half with the one man advantage. A powerful run down the right wing from Matt Seamons earned Haddonfield a 46th minute corner. An ‘in swinger’ from john O’Conner found the head of Chris Willis at the near post who headed the ball back to the edge of the areawhere Danny Thomas was lurking. The Ball found the Haddonfield midfielder. With a defender on Thomas’ tail, he didn’t have a lot of time or space to get his shot away but using his chest to cushion the ball into the path of his right foot he hit a sweetly struck volley into the top left corner leaving the keeping no chance whatsoever.
With the additional man, momentum, pressure building on BR’s defence and playing good football, an additional goal was inevitable. Another attack generated on the right-hand side by Jay Walker and Matt S ended up in a throw-in which was quickly put in Stuart Lee’s path. In typical Stuart Lee fashion, he turned BR’s centre-half and powered the ball past the helpless keep in one swift motion. For the first time in the game we were ahead and looking solid albeit against a tiring side with 10 men. 4 – 3 up 75 mins played.
Stuart off Harry on. Fresh legs at the right time. A great 15 – 20 minutes from Harry. Good range of passing and nearly bagged, it was only the timing of his run that let him down.
It was smooth sailing for the rest of the game, the idea being to play keep-ball, control the game and see out the 90. With one of the last attacks of the game, Matt bell made a great run, taking on 2 BR players and put the ball back across the box once again unselfishly to the energetic John O’Connor who this time, got on the end of the cross and confidently side-footed the ball into the bottom left, post and in. Very calm finish indeed which capped a MOTM performance from the berk! 5 – 3 up, minutes to play.
FINAL WHISTLE.
Definitely not the best we’ve played and have a lot to work on for next week, but showed fantastic fight and team spirit. Hard fought win.
