Meads came back from a half time deficit to progress into the 2nd round of the LOB cup with a 4-2 win against Old Wilsonians on Saturday Bromley, which is f**king miles away. We may as well have been playing in Bristol it took us so long to get there with the London traffic.
We arrived on the pitch with only 15 minutes to go before kick off, which gave us just about enough time to get warmed up and have our respect handshake with the opposition. The game could not have started better for Meads with the first player to touch the ball for Old Wilsonians being the goalkeeper when he took the ball out of his net. The ref told me it was 35 seconds, that has to be close to some sort of Meads record. Starting from the kick off the ball went to Dave at left back, the ball was switched over to Rory, passed into Matt, who played the ball over for Owen who cut inside and passed to Adam, who then bobbled the ball into the back of the net, wrong footing the keeper.
The old cliche of scoring too early was actually completely correct in Saturday's case as Meads took their foot off the gas and probably allowed their minds to wander. Wilsonians began to get a foothold in the game but thier football was fairly limited, playing the long ball up to a big striker and looking to pick up the pieces. To their credit Wilsonians style suited their players as they were a far bigger side than us and so they were simply playing to their strengths. They equalised with a rory delap throw that flew over our defence to the back post where someone was on hand to head home.
Despite the equaliser Meads looked dangerous going forward with lots of small openings never quite materialising into anything more. Matt squandered a one on one, hitting the ball a bit early when played through by a lovely pass from Roni.
Wilsonians took the lead halfway through the half when the ball was played over the top and their striker finished nicely with a lob over Jake. The goal was perhaps the wake up call that was needed. The second half came with the focus on continuing what we were doing but also making sure the passes were played with a bit more care. When looking back at the match one could only say that the response to being behind at the break was superb. Playing the ball around with a bit more conviction and supporting the players in possession Meads began to show their superiority.
With about 20 minutes left on the clock George replaced Matt and this was to be a tipping point in the game. George has only played a total of 45 minutes this season but in that time the team have scored 6 goals. George had nothing to do with the equaliser however, which was scored by Owen. Taking on Wilsonians down the middle Owen found some space just outside the box and rather than slashing at the ball he struck the ball nicely into the bottom corner, leaving the keeper with no chance. 2-2 and there was only going to be one winner from here.
Only 5 minutes after coming on George got the first of his two goals, the first a typical strikers goal, tapping in after Owen's shot was parried by the keeper. His second goal was to prove the last act of the game. A superb team move saw Dave flying down the left wing and passing the ball across goal, where George slid in and glanced the ball into the far corner with a lovely finish.
A very satisfying win having trailed, Meads showing that there is mental resilience to go with the technical ability in the team. Also good to see Dave Hough back after such a lengthy lay off.
MOM went to Owen who scored a lovely equaliser and was central to a lot of the good that came from Meads on the day.
