Started out playing on one pitch but where sooned moved off that after 10 minutes by a jobsworth caretaker from the school nearby. Appartently the home team hadnt booked the pitch and we were told this wasn’t a problem as they had been playing there for years! The pitch we moved to looked like it hadnt been mowed in years and we had the added problem of no pitch markings (which was soon sorted with the aid of a few cones!) Not a good start!
· In the first half you could tell we hadn't played together for a few months and were soon 1 down. A speculative effort from the edge of the box that just squirmed under Matts outstretched arm. It didn’t get any better and after 35 minutes a dubious penalty was awarded to the home team (Im sure Dick managed to get a touch on the ball) and was subsequently put away with Matt managing to get a hand on it but unable to keep it out. Plumtree managed a few half decent breaks but were unable to test the goalkeeper.
· The half time team talk seemed to work wonders however. We talked about keeping possesion and being a bit more aggressive and with 10 mins gone Ryan reduced the defacit to 2-1 with a well place effort just inside the near post….however staright from the kick off 1 of the opposition players managed to run 40 yards with the ball to the edge of the area and smash a well taken goal in top the roof of the net.
· We didn’t let our heads go down and managed to get back on the score sheet pretty quickly. Courty getting his head on a well placed cross to make it 2-3.
· It then turned in to the Paul Thomas show! Paul got on the scoresheet to make it 3-3 with about 20 minutes to go with an acrobatic bycylce kick then topped that with only a few minutes remaining when he took the ball about 35 yards out a unleashed an unstoppable pile driver into the top corner (which im sure he will gladly talk you through until the end of the season!!)
All in all it was a very good work out played in the right spirit. All the lads played well and the second half performance was one of the best we’ve seen for a while. We managed to keep hold of the ball and test the keeper with earlier shots (stuff that we have been working on in training) Considering this was the first game we have played in a while that was no mean feat.
Man of the match has to go to Paul Thomas for scoring 2 memorable goals with only 1 ½ half good shoulders, with Matt Court not far behind. It looks good for the new season if we can keep this up……
