Pompey cup quarter finals home to meon milton A was going to be a tough game as its been a very stop start season so far.
We started with a 4-4-1-1 with ryan s lewis and ryan n on the bench.
We started the game a little sluggish was an eary feeling from the sideline as meon came at us strong playing with the intent to upset us with a physical game aswell as playing the high ball up to there pacey striker,winning 90% of headers aswell as 1st and second balls we just seemed to be playing like a team of strangers getting frustrated at simple things which ruined the way we play.
Even though we were not playing at are best the first chance fell to us with alfie slipping kieron through one on one only to see his strike well saved by the meon keeper.
Meon almost got the breakthrough on 19mins with a through ball splitting the defence which there striker finished well but playing with a high line we managed to play him off side which in turn woke the lads up a little.
There was nothing between the sides and on 20mins made 2 changes with ryan n replacing sam and lewis replacing toby.
It took until the 30min just before the break for the first goal of the game and it came to us max chested down well a cross field ball from ollie and with a great first touch he sent lewis clean through slidding in with the keeper he got there first stabbing the ball under the keepers body with his right foot to put us 1-0 ahead and send us in at the break with a lucky lead as it was a very tight game.
The lads dragged them selfs off the pitch very slowly with there heads down looking as if they were the team losing and we faced a problem of letting the frustration get the better of us as the style of play meon had set out with had worked.
Made a change at half time bringing on ryan s for cameron.
The second half started alot better with both teams pushing for the next goal knowing as the next goal was so importent as at 1-0 it was far from over and meon new that.
We how ever created the better chances but just failed to get that final ball or hit the back of the net with both meons keeper and defence doing well to close us down quickly and with the keeper making a string of good saves.
How ever we finaly got the breakthrough switching into a higher gear we burst into life with a great bit of hustle by ryan n at right back set max away down the wing he took on two defenders and swung in a great cross which found kieron unmarked at the back post he took one touch and smashed it past the helpless keeper to make the score a more comftable 2-0 after 48mins.
We made three changes on 50mins with toby replacing kieron sam replacing ollie and cameron replacing charlie for the final 10mins with lewis dropping in at center and alfie dropped out to the left wing and within a few mins alfrie took on a couple of meon players and sent though cameron with a great ball his first shot was well saved but the rebound fell kindly for cameron to have a second bite and he made that count smashing it home from 6 yards to make the score 3-0 after 55mins and finish off any meon come back.
It was far from a convincing win but we march on into the semi finals it was hard work and true grit that got us through and we showed we have two sides to are game but fair play to meon they took us all the way and gave us a good game.
Man of the match went to jack who hard an outstanding game at center back and well deserved the award.
Well done lads it was a good result lets keep it up WTPs next so we need to work hard and keep are heads.
