Meads 4s arrested the slide in form on Saturday in emphatic fashion as they brushed aside a competent Albanian side, winning 4-0. Coming into the game on the back of some poor results Meads showed a great desire to impose themselves on the game right from the off.
With Ash and George forging a new partnership upfront Meads were immediately on the front foot. Playing the ball down the channels, Meads were exploiting a slow defence as Charlie and Ash ran their defence ragged. It was to be the same channel that gave Meads the lead; when Kev played the ball in between centre and left back Ash was able to latch on to it and he cooly opened up his body and slotted the ball home, perfect start.
Fran and Charlie were linking up well on the right side with Fran often getting forward to help out attacks. Back after a long spell on the sidelines with an ankle injury Charlie was working tirelessly as well as proving a potent force in attack. Meads were in near enough total control throughout the first half apart from a 5 minute spell, even then any attack that did materialise was quickly snuffed out by Sam and Neil. Although not his favoured position, Neil brings a lot of qualities to the central defence, not least his excellent command of the back line.
As Meads searched for that second goal chances came and went; Damo hit the bar from an angle after a slided pass from Ash, George hit a crisp shot that was gathered by the keeper. The goal was inevitbale and it came when George tried an ambitous over head kick that looped over the keeper and hit the top of the bar, it was an incredible effort that, if it had gone in, would have been a front runner for goal of the season. Damo was quickest to react and had the simplest of tasks in tapping the ball home from a foot. 2-0 at half time.
The 2nd half saw a similar level of performance from the 1st half but the game became strethed pretty quickly. Albanian changed things around in an attempt to change their fortunes but nothing came of it, the defence was in no mood to let the clean sheet go. The clean sheet looked under threat at one point when Neil's unforgiving backpass bounced onto Jake's chest, with the pressure of the striker, Jake smashed the ball but it went straight up into the air. As the ball sailed up into the autumnal sky, Jake waited patiently before heading nonchalantly wide of the post for a corner.
Foz came off for Lister after a superb comeback game. Working hard, his defensive strength was great insurance and went a long way to protecting the clean sheet. The game was sealed when George got on the end of a Charlie cross and finished nicely to get his second goal since coming back. Ash was still troubling the Albanian back line and he squirmed free to shoot just wide from the angle. The scoreline was given an extra boost when Charlie once again got free down the right and his cross was diverted into the goal by the defender in stoppage time, 4-0. The referee blew his whistle seconds later.
The game was a far better display from previous weeks. The team played with an intensity that we haven't seen for a while and if the 4s play like this consistently there's a good chance of moving back up the table. The test is to replicate this showing in the league where the game doesnt have the same knockout feel.
It was a measure of the team performance that 9 out of the XI players recieved an MOM vote. There was no MOM this week, there were good performances all over the pitch but we must be reafy for the tougher tests to come in the next few weeks.
