After the dissapointment of last week's defeat at FC Nou Camp Gavin Heard sent out the same starting 11 who were given the opportunity to bounce back in order to keep the pressure on the teams at the top of the table. Striker Liam Geordeson who missed several very good chances last week was determined more than anyone to make amends and when he arrived at The Bronte looking fresh it was obvious he had layed off the sherberts and was in the land of nod well before 8 out of 10 cats.
The game began nervously and both sides failed to play any decent football, this wasn't helped of course by the referee who was determined to get his moneys worth out of his new whistle which affected the flow of the game. Our first opportunity came from a Wesso Davies free kick on 13 minutes which was headed wide by James Gregory who's appeal for a corner was waved away. It was a Wesso free kick again on 17 minutes which presented us with another good chance to open the scoring but his shot was tame and easy for the goalkeeper. Dean Judge created a chance out of nothing on the half hour mark when he closed down the full back and won the ball on the right and played in a great cross which was hit on the half volley by Paul Langley but his strike was saved by some top class goalkeeping which denied "Pinpoint" his first goal of the campaign. Most of our chances seemed to come from free kicks and another came when Gregory headed down for Netran Dolan who turned well to get his shot off but failed to hit the target. The away sides best chance fell just before the break when a well struck shot was tipped over by Phil Founds who showed great agility to keep the game level. Half time (0-0)
The half time message from Gavin Heard was a clear one, it was time to up the tempo and get on the front foot from the off. Anthony Moore replaced Netran Dolan who put in a good shift on the right but it was the impact of Wesley Pitchford who replaced Dean Judge just before the hour mark which made the difference. It what was his first touch that Pitchford used his strength to win the tussle with his marker and play a great ball down the right for Moore who fired in a first time cross which found Liam Geordeson who showed sublime skill to shift the ball from one foot to the other before lashing the ball into the back of the net (1-0). We only managed to hold the lead for a mere 3 minutes when some poor defending saw us fail to clear a free kick which went out to their right hand side, the ball was played back into the danger zone and headed in past Phil Founds's near post (1-1). The players showed tremendous character in how they reacted to conceeding what was only our 6th goal this season and the winner was worthy of winning any game. It came courtesy of some quick thinking from Kieran Dolan who played the ball out to Paul Langley who whipped in one of his trademark left peg crosses which was met by Geordeson who smashed the ball in with an overhead kick that was like Mark Hughes in his pomp, or was it Robbie Fowler or Berbatov I can't remember. One thing that was sure was this was no 8 out of 10 goal it was worthy of a 10 any day and was just what we needed in order to wrap up all 3 points. Geordeson could well have been going home with the match ball when substitute Tony Cosgrove linked up well with Langley and fired in a dangerous cross which was volleyed just wide of the far post by a man who can enjoy his 10 pints tonight.
Man of the match: Liam Geordeson, two superb goals and a terrific 2nd half performance from a man who's Friday night tipple must surely now be Horlicks
Subs not used: John Davies, Shaun Kent
Next up: 23/10/10 vs Adlam Park (a) Intermediate Cup 2nd round
