Where do you start? today we went through every emotion you can think of . In the space of seventy pulsating minutes we went through frustration , joy , pride anxiety and in the very end a little despair. Frustration with the sloppy way we started the tie , poor marking and no concentration in gifting a penalty so soon into the game. Joy at the way we stormed back into the game ,forcing the WDYFL champs into near submission with relentless positive attacking play .Pride in the manner we conducted ourselves, always backing up our team mates and oh so nearly holding on for a memorable win.Lastly the despair in being denied not only the deserved victory but the chance to take it all the way to the penalty shoot out.
After the gifting of the first goal we then had to dig really deep as the Tower Hill side looked to put us out of this competition as quikly as they could. The defenders stood up to the task Owen , Callum ,Keiron and Joe backed up by Isaac were rock solid. In midfield Ollie Whitrow was slowly but surely beginning to dominate his opposite number and by the final kick of the game his opponent knew he had been in a fierce battle. Jonty was getting the freedom to break forward and link up with the attacking partnership of Tyler and Lewis. Though it took a while to begin with the two front runners were starting to drop deep to help our overworked midfielders , this would soon pay dividends. Tyler stepped back to pick up the loose ball and clipped the ball inside for Jonty. Jonty played a slide rule pass into the path of Ned who was scythed down in the process of shooting at goal, another day another ref ,a red card offence?Jonty placed the ball for the kick and the ref asked him to respot it , mindgames? Good ol skipper would not be denied and we were level. Now it was game on , and how we rose to the occasion. Our football was exciting and intense and we were cranking up the pace when we were awarded yet another freekick for pulling back near the halfway line. Tyler , Lewis and Thomas raced to the left wing and Jonty stole in down the middle. Ollie spotted Jonts run and picked him out superbly,and the captain scored with a smart strike into the bottom corner. We continued to press and nearly had a third before the break when a visiting defender missed his own goal by inches when clearing off Tylers toes.
In the second half Tower tried to push us back but the defenders just would not buckle and our strength was growing even before Ollie gave us our third goal. Another Ollie special after more infringements on Jonty and Lewis led to the freekick award thirty yards out. The league champs looked a beaten side and had little in the way of attacking options. Sadly for us a cruel bobble in front of Ned caused a misskick that landed plum on the forwards shooting foot and from nothing Tower had a glimmer to cling to. The way were playing we still looked like we'd score again and when Ned raced clear through on goal again it resulted with another defender chopping our flying winger down to earth, red card? Ollie composed himself , stepped back and went for broke. Unbelievably the ball whacked the underside of the bar and bounced back to the six yard line where Youngy was unable to keep his follow up under the crossbar.With time almost over Tower pushed men forward and in the melee of the penalty area a poorly struck shot some how squeezed past our brave defenders and found a waiting teammate who pounced to steal away our victory and send the game into extra time.
Neither side were going to settle for penalties and both continued to look for a winner. Tower thought they had scored it early in the second half of extra-time but the centre forward clearly ran toward Isaac from an offside position to put the keeper under pressure.As we plotted our penalty takers there was one last cruel twist of the knife. From a throw in near their corner flag the Tower defence hacked clear, another ball forward found the winger who somehow found the energy to burst past both Callum and Joe and he finished with a crisp strike into the roof of the net. At the final whistle our opponents formed a guard of honour and although it will always hurt our performance should only fill you boys with immense pride.
Thanks once again to Alex and Harry who waited patiently on the side lines but unfortunately got no run out today.Two games to go in this our first A league season and the runners up spot is still up for grabs so chins up and let's do it all again.
