Despite a nervy last half hour in which we very nearly let a 3 goal lead slip we have managed to secure our place in the 4th round of The Intermediate Cup with a 3-2 victory over Zingari Prem side Liobians FC. Gavin Heard made three changes to the side which were held at Glasshouse 7 days ago which included a first start for Neil Hunter who replaced the out of form Brian Kerwin at left back. Heard shuffled the pack with Ian Jordan starting on the right and Anthony Moore switching to the left which meant a start in central midfield for The Warden Eggman Paul Langley alongside captain Kieran Dolan. After an edgy start to the game we took the lead on 7 minutes when Langley scrambled into a challenge winning the ball in the middle of the park he fried down the left hand side and put in an egg-cellent cross which was controlled brilliantly by Dean Judge who stabbed the ball past the keeper. The lead was doubled 10 minutes later and again the move came down the left flank, this time it was Anthony Moore who got at the full back and crossed into the path of Judge who headed the ball down for Liam Geordeson who made no mistake and slotted home with a neat finish into the corner. The early goals seemed to wake the away side up and what followed was constant pressure as they looked at getting a goal back. Kieran Dolan made a rare mistake on 19 minutes when he scuffed a clearance which allowed Liobians to capitalise, Phil Founds was slow getting out to the forward who got to the ball first but clipped his effort just past the post, more defensive uncertainly presented “The Green Army” (bad chant that by the way!) with another good opportunity just minutes later but this time Founds made a good save when he narrowed the angle and blocked the shot low down. For a spell of about 15 minutes we struggled to get the ball out of our own half and at times the defending was very poor yet again this resulted in an almost identical chance for Liobians when their number 9 got the better of James Gregory but his shot lacked conviction and trickled past the far post. The resulting goal kick was a poor one by Founds which was headed into the path of their number 7 who should have took the chance himself instead he dinked the ball across the face of goal but it was cleared out of the danger zone by James Davies who made an excellent recovery run. Geordeson had our first effort on goal since the 2nd goal after 40 minutes but he failed to hit the target when he curled the ball high and wide and Kieran Dolan was desperately unlucky when John Marsh picked him out with a great ball, the captain cut in from the right hand side and struck a shot with his left foot which was well saved by the keeper. It was to be the last chance of the half (half time 2-0)
The second half got off to the perfect start when Liam Geordeson latched on to a long ball up field and beat the off side trap and was faced with just the keeper to beat and he done so with a great shimmy which bamboozled the keeper before rolling the ball into the back of the net, there has since been a conspiracy that he first flicked mud into his eyes which may explain why he hit the deck like a sack of shite but only Liam will be able to answer that one, take nothing away from the finish though which was class. On 55 minutes Gavin Heard gave a debut to Shaun Kent who removed the splinters from his arse after 4 frustrating weeks on the bench as an unused sub, Kenty replaced John Marsh who had gave a much better performance after a slight dip in form in recent weeks. Liobians continued to push forward and their right back was providing the outlet with a series of long balls into the channels which were answering all kinds of questions out of us as a defensive unit and after 67 minutes we were punished when their left back made a good run down the wing and raced into the box, the ball was fired in and bumbled into the net by the striker. The goal seemed to yet again lift the away side and we were struggling to keep our shape and when the referee awarded them a penalty on 73 minutes after Gregory was deemed to have pushed over one of their players in the box it was looking like we were going to be in for a nervous last 15 minutes. Thankfully Phil Founds guessed right and saved which was a poorly taken pen but credit has to go to our number 1. Neil Hunter had acquitted himself well and never put a foot wrong in what was his first start for 2 years but he conceded a second penalty with a push into the back just 5 minutes later, up stepped the number 9 again and it was almost like an action replay, same corner & same outcome another save from Founds down to his right. The Liobians number 9 managed to make up for his two missed spot kicks with a late goal back but once the ref had used his unique style of showing the line there was only 2 and a half minutes left it was clear that time was not on their side in order to force extra time and a place in the 4th round draw would belong to us but we could very easily have been left with egg on our faces.
