A week after being comprehensively dumped out of the Dewar Shield by the Premier Division leaders Sabanoh 97, Haddonfield faced another Premier Division side in the Plumstead Challenge Cup in Eltham Phoenix ‘B’.
Sam Hollands missed the game through work commitments and Matt Bell missed the game through illness and so the only changes in personnel from the previous week were the returns of Stuart Lee, who had missed the previous week while managing his knee and Jay Swann back between the posts. Stuart came back in up front, meaning that Chris Willis dropped into central midfield and John O’Connor moved out to the left.
Eltham Phoenix started brightly and had the majority of the ball in the opening stages, playing some very good, fast and free flowing football and probably should have scored on more than one occasion with Haddonfield keeper Jay Swann almost gifting them an opener as he dropped a corner at the feet of an Eltham Phoenix player, who somehow put a shot about 10 feet past the post with the goal at his mercy.
Not long after that miss and Eltham Phoenix again had a good opportunity to open the scoring, as another corner was headed on to the bar but luckily rebounded straight into the arms of the Haddonfield keeper.
Down the other end, GJ had a great opportunity to put Haddonfield 1-0 up but perhaps a moment’s hesitation cost him as the Eltham Phoenix keeper smothered the ball well.
GJ’s pace on the counter was causing Eltham Phoenix’s defence a lot of problems and he won a penalty for the home side as he was scythed down from behind when one-on-one with the Phoenix ‘keeper. Scott Mulgrew stepped up and confidently sent the keeper the wrong way with his 3rd penalty of the season, to make it 1-0 to Haddonfield.
With the goal, Haddonfield visibly grew in confidence and some of the football on show from both sides was worthy of a much higher level. The defence looked very solid, with Matt Seamons and John O’Connor showing plenty of energy on the wings and the midfield 3 of Scott Muglrew, Danny Thomas and Chris Willis beginning to show their class on the ball. Up top Stuart and GJ looked a massive threat to a vulnerable Eltham Phoenix defence.
As Haddonfield began to push on top, a moment of brilliance from GJ made it 2-0, as Danny Thomas swung in a corner that went over everyone; GJ watched the ball drop out of the sky before lashing it home on the volley. A well-deserved goal for his efforts up to that point.
Haddonfield could have had a 2nd penalty moments later as GJ again got in behind and as the keeper came to meet him, he touched the ball round him and was then steamrolled. For some reason, the referee decided not to award what was a clear penalty to everyone either watching or playing.
Half time and 2-0 up, which I think everyone would have happily taken before the game.
In to the second half and the football continued from both teams, the game was becoming a real spectacle for those watching from both sides.
Eltham Phoenix again showed some great one and two touch football, but most of it was being played in front of the home side, who were never particularly threatened with being opened up. When there was a threat from the away side, Jay Walker, Brad Davis and Adam Pantelli stood up brilliantly to it and arguably produced their best display together of the season.
The away side were kept to shots from distance in the 2nd half and Jay Swann done well on more than one occasion, with some very good stops to keep his clean sheet intact.
John O’Connor had a brilliant chance to extend the lead, as a cross from Stuart Lee found him at the back post and – with the keeper out of his goal – he was unlucky to screw a volley just wide of the right hand post.
With Eltham Phoenix changing their formation regularly in an attempt to find a way through the home side, Haddonfield made it 3-0, as GJwent on a mazy run, that was finally brought to an end as he was fouled about 30 yards from goal. Visibly frustrated at the challenge, GJ brushed himself off and ushered the other Haddonfield players away from the ball, before finding the top left corner of the goal with a brilliant free kick.
It may be argued that the Eltham Phoenix keeper could and probably should have done a lot better with the effort, but take nothing away from the Haddonfield striker, who had both the vision and the ability to find the back of the net from such a distance.
With the clock ticking down, Joe Tume replaced Scott Mulgrew with 15 minutes to go, after the central midfielder had carried an ankle injury through about an hour of the game. Harry Butcher then replaced GJ but before any further play could take place, the referee brought an end to a fantastic game for the boys in blue.
A great performance, probably the best all round game that we have played this season. In that, I mean that we may have had better games attacking-wise but as a complete unit, we showed great resilience and also talent. Some of the football we played after we settled down at 1-0 was more than equal to that of Eltham Phoenix, who have clearly got some very, very talented individuals in their team, but are maybe not yet a complete unit.
The defence were phenomenal and it was good to see all of them looking so together and strong at the back for us. Matt and John showed great energy on the wings and looked very good both going forward aswell as going backwards. Having those 2 out wide allowed us to play good football across the entire pitch, as they are both very intelligent players.
The midfield trio of Scotty, Dan and Chris looked very good, although we still have a culpability of our centre mids going missing at times when flying forward during attacks, I think the communication between the 3 was great and we never left ourselves too open, which we have done in our last few games, while leaking goals left, right and centre. With the talent in our squad - and no disrespect to the majority of teams in our league – we shouldn’t be conceding goals like we have lately (obviously dismissing conceding 7 to the best team in the entire Alliance last week)
As always, Stu and GJ looked brilliant together. Those 2 have caused so many problems for every team we come up against when they have played together and it is a great shame that we won’t have Stu much longer. I will be looking around for someone in the squad to step up and try to fill his boots, which won’t be an easy task at all.
Well done boys, I couldn’t have asked for more effort from you and now we take on Olympic Greenwich this Sunday.
