Another week and another new challenge faced The Revs. This time in the shape of first season newbies Queensbury United. A group of late teens/early 20 year olds who could play a bit. Their record coming into the game was 2 wins and 2 draws and their only loss as a result of a no show. So essentially this was a battle of the unbeaten.
The Revs had to be at their very best defensively and the entire team rose to that challenge. As is the case with the majority of the games this campaign, the play was in front of The Revs goal for the first 10 minutes or so. The youngsters hogging the ball, but so water tight was the defence that they resorted to long range efforts that acted as catching practice for star keeper Myers.
As the game wore on The Revs grew into it and started to pin the youngsters back in their half. This was in no small part to the contribution of Lewis Evans upfront who battled for every ball and every inch. His hold up play was sublime. This allowed the likes of Beardall, Tyman, Dave Pinkstone and James Evans to play of him and around him and start creating opportunities.
And just before half time The Revs got their reward. A swift move that started with Beardall sweeping the ball over to James Evans who then Cruyff-turned his man (yes, it finally worked!!) creating the space to whip a ball into the middle. A defender managed to poke a leg at it but Lewis Evans was the quickest to pounce and hit a powerful shot that beat the keeper purely through speed alone.
The opposition were not happy that for all their possession they went into half time 1-0 down. What they failed to realise is that this is the tightest defence in all three leagues so far.
They came out of the break determined and apart from one shot which Myers tipped round the post, were one again thwarted at every turn. Phil Pinkstone once again getting any body part possible to preserve the slender lead, although claims of a high foot were exaggerated... come on ref, he's only tiny, no way he can get his foot that high!
Beardall should have wrapped things up with just over 10 to go when he intercepted the ball from the keeper and in the one on one situation he meekly shot/passed it back to the keeper. Phil Pinkstone had a rare foray forward too but chose to blast the ball high, wide and mighty towards the corner post in an effort to catch the keeper cold.
However, it was down to man of the match Lewis Evans to finally put the game to bed with a superb second goal. The opposition, pinned in, started to panic clear the ball. In the melee it fell nicely to Evans who hit a sweet strike, low, hard and true, first time from around 18 yards out that whistled into the bottom corner and in off the post. He doesn’t often get the headlines he deserves, but Lewis Evans stepped up when needed to at the right time last night and played a near perfect game.
The opposition were truly stunned by this time and started falling out amongst each other. Chill lads, better teams than you have suffered as a result of The Revs defensive strategy.
It could have got worse for them had Dave Pinkstone connected properly with any of his three headers, trying to loop the ball over to James Evans. Instead it just looked like a trained seal had come to play, balancing the ball up, up and up once again. Well done Dave, treat yourself to a fish!
The final whistle went and it meant a first proper game loss for the opposition and a trip back to the top of the table for The Revs.
This brings down the curtain to the first half of the season and a week’s break now for the boys in blue. Top of the league, unbeaten and only one goal conceded so far. Not bad for a set of tired, old boys eh…
