With Southwell Braves being touted as the weak team in the division, the fact we were missing Wraggy, Elliot and Ryan from our defence wasn’t a major concern. Nev and Connor have gelled quite well so we had no fears. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing. The first 10 minutes were very edgy and the Southwell team had the better of the play and neither team created any serious chances. In fact, the 1st serious chance led to our opening goal on 14 minutes. Some great skills from Cammy got him into the penalty area where he fed the ball to Moo whose shot was tipped wide. Cammy took the corner and it fell to Dom on the edge of the area. His shot ballooned into the air and dropped down almost onto the Southwell goalie who reached up and fumbled the ball into the net. Moo had a chance to double the lead when Dom sent him clear, but the keeper charged down the shot. On 21 minutes, a Braves corner was headed clear by Dom; Ollie brought it down, controlled and played it to Aiden on the overlap. His early through ball found Moo who took it around the keeper and finished into the open net.
Six minutes later, Aiden was the supplier once again. This time a massive goal kick went over everyone. Ollie reached the ball first, carried it forward and pushed it too close to the keeper. But he didn’t pick it up, Ollie tackled him and again a goal was scored into a gaping net. That gave us a 3-0 half-time lead.
Two changes were made at half time. Corie replaced Foxy and Simon came on up front with Moo moving to the right and Jack making way.
We made it 4-0 on 45 minutes with a bizarre goal; Cammy chased a ball wide on the left and won it on the touchline. Without looking up he swung the ball towards the box. We had no-one so far up field but the defender touched it back to the keeper who once again failed to deal with it and it rolled in off his legs. We won the ball back straight from the re-start and Cammy sent a ball through for Simon who finished easily from about 8 yards out. Two goals in a minute to make it 5-0.
Chiv came on for Graney and Pridders managed to get himself booked for retaliating to a bad challenge into the back of his legs. He was perhaps lucky it wasn’t red.
On 65 minutes it was more bizarre stuff which brought us our final goal of the game. Moo took a free-kick from just outside the box. A weak one that should have been easy but again the Southwell goalie didn’t collect it. Simon reached it first, his shot was blocked by the keeper but rebounded onto a defender and into the net. Man of the match went to Moo mainly for his excellent performance up front in the first half.
The result was a 6-0 win but in all honesty we were abysmal. All six goals were given to us by Southwell. Two own goals, 3 more that would have been gobbled up a real goalkeeper (not just someone who is in the net because no-one else wants to!) and one that was a gift from a kick-off.
If Southwell Braves had got Adam in goal we may well have lost this game. If we had played how I know we can, we would have scored 15 or more. It was a 6-0 win, but a disappointing one. We can’t afford too many games like this.
