Jubilee FC hosted The Greenman at Station Approach in the Senior Cup Qualifying Stage – Division A. Manager Elton Marks stuck to his usual 4-4-2 formation. Luke ‘Bosnich’ Lloyd started in goal with Nigel ‘50p head’ Agyekumhene and Max Charalambos at right and left back respectively. Dean Powell and Samuel Brown started at centre back. Johnny ‘left-peg’ Heather and Josh Rogers started on the left and right of midfield with Isaiah Rankin and Matt ‘Mad-dog’ Brown forming the central midfield partnership. Joe ‘Sepp’ Lloyd and returning veteran Joe Benbow spearheaded the Jubilee attack. Saul ‘set-piece’ Charalambos, Barry White, Nicky Alvarez, Marc ‘Barnes’ Farrell and Jack ‘Essex’ Tickner were warming the substitutes bench today.
Jubilee FC kicked off and immediately passed it around with ease. Some good attacking play was coming down the left and right channels. Johnny Heather and Max Charalambos were linking up well resulting in Johnny Heather able to whip in some deadly balls into the box but the attackers unable to connect. Nigel Agyekumhene linked up with Josh Rogers on the right before playing in Matt Brown who shot over. A ball from the midfield from Isaiah Rankin to Johnny Heather was controlled and played into the path of Joe Benbow. Joe shot into the right bottom corner and the goalkeeper had no chance. 1-0 to Jubilee FC.
The early goal boosted Jubilees confidence a tad too much and they took their foot off the gas. Sloppy balls were given away and too many long balls over the top were tried. The Greenman played a ball down the right of Jubilees defence. A cross was whipped in and their striker ghosted in at the far post to slot home. 1-1.
Jubilee FC couldn’t believe they were level with The Greenman and it was about to get worse. A free kick given away just outside the box was slotted home into the top right corner of the goal to give The Greenman the lead. 2-1 to The Greenman.
Jubilee FC were shell-shocked but it was a much needed wake up call. The players started passing the ball, with some triangles played down the left side of midfield but were unable to get a shot on goal as The Greenman defenders were throwing themselves in front of everything. A marauding run from Sam Brown from the heart of defence all the way to the opposition by-line was then crossed in with Johnny Heather just missing the ball at the far post. Just when Jubilee FC were feeling their way back into the game a back pass from Dean Powell was miss kicked by goalkeeper Luke Lloyd and volleyed by The Greenman attacker into the back of the net. 3-1 to the Greenman.
Elton Marks made a tactical change with Sam Brown moving in to central midfield and Matt Brown slotting in to centre back. Jubilee FC kicked off and immediately went on the attack down the right of midfield. Nigel Agykumhene made an excellent overlapping run and squared the ball back to Sam Brown. Sam was able to play in Matt Brown who shot at goal but got deflected from one of the defenders onto the cross bar. The resultant corner was headed just over at the near post from Joe Benbow. Just as the half was drawing to a close a through ball from Isaiah Rankin played in Joe Benbow, who was bought down in the box but no penalty given.
At half time Elton Marks rallied the troops as the team knew they hadn’t played badly but they had let in some sloppy goals. The team knew from the previous result against Cuffley that if they could get one goal back the opposition will start to crumble.
The Greenman kicked off the first half and it was obvious that they planned on playing deep with balls over the top. The Jubilee defence could easily deal with this and so tried to push their full backs forward to add support. A through ball from Johnny Heather played in Max Charalambos and the defending player cleared for a throw. Max quickly took the throw in enabling Sam Brown to shoot just wide of the post. Jubilee FC had upped the tempo and could already feel there were more goals in this match.
The next attack resulted in three back to back corners but Matt Brown was unable to convert when he connected. Elton Marks felt it was time to make a change and Joe Lloyd was substituted for David Binder. David had an immediate impact playing in Johnny Heather who had a powerful shot saved by the goalkeeper.
Elton Marks made another substitution switching Max Charalambos for his brother Saul Charalambos. Jubilee were pressing hard now but The Greenman were countering at every opportunity. Nigel Agyekumhene had his hands full with the smallest striker in the division and Dean Powell was as calm and reassuring as always. Marc Farrell was introduced to the game to try and get the winner at the expense of Josh Rogers who had run his socks off down the right flank.
Just as we were approaching the 70th minute mark a ball from Sam Brown was played into the box for the deep running Matt Brown to smash home. 3-2 and game on.
Jubilee were pilling on the pressure and getting plenty of corners for the set-piece maestro Saul Charalambos to take but they were well defended by their big central defender. The ball came out the Greenman box and fell to Saul Charalambos who played it to David Binder. David played the ball to Sam Brown into the box who beat the defender to smashed it into the bottom right corner. No crossing this time. 3-3 and Jubilee felt the game was for its taking.
The final attack of the half came from a lovely move down the left of midfield. Saul Charalambos mad an 80 yard overlapping run but just faltered when about to shoot.
The Full time whistle blew with the score at 3 -3. Not a bad result in the end for Jubilee FC but one they will definitely feel they could have won if they had been more switched on at the start. The rest of the qualifying group consists of Ware Saviours and PSV Shades. Jubilee will be hopeful of possibly topping the group. Sam Brown won the Man of the Match award closely followed by Dean Powell. The whole team showed massive spirit to again come from behind to grab some points.
The next game is against AC Hertford in round 4 of League Challenge Cup.
