On the way to the game it looked like we were going to get wet but after the Tesco run and the journey the rain stopped and the sun made an appearance, the pitch was in good condition with plenty of grass on it which makes a change for the pitch at Bourne park.
The game started off with Sax being put under pressure straight from the KO but Kris recovered and forced a goal kick. Sax had their 1st chance after 5 minutes with a long clearance from Jack going to Ed but his shot was blocked and went out for a corner, as is becoming a habit and would frustrate us all for this game nothing came from the corner. Ed had to come off straight after the corner as a precaution when he felt his hamstring start to tighten, Ryan was sent on and caused problems to the Athletic defence. We had several corners that came to nothing and 1 that Finchy got on target was saved by the keeper. Sax had a good break when Ryan played a good ball to Luke but his shot didn't trouble the goal. The play was all in the Ipswich half and they were struggling to cope with the lads with only our final ball letting us down. 15 minute in and Sax opened the scoring with Sam playing the ball in to Ben who Scored his 7th of the Season and no more than the Lads deserved. The rest of the half was all 1 way traffic with the Athletic Keeper pulling off some great saves and the lads not taking chances we had. 1 attack saw us have about 6 shots that were either saved blocked on the line and eventually in to the keepers hands. The 1st half was a great display from the lads and being only 1 goal up was a little less than they deserved but we were well on top and deserved the lead.
The lads were warned at half time to expect an onslaught from the home team and to soak up the pressure that was likely to come their way. The 2nd half eventually got under way and Sax were under pressure but Finchy and Jack dealt with it coolly and got the ball away. In the 2nd minute Sax got a free kick 30 yards from goal and Sam looked across to the dugout to ask what he should do, the answer came back have a go at goal. Sam stepped up and hit a fantastic shot that went over the Keepers head and in to the back of the net a brilliant goal or so we thought. On the far side of the pitch a flag was raised by the lino and the Ref went over for a word apparently it was offside and the goal was disallowed, The lads went mad the managers weren't far behind but we had to calm down and get on with it and hope that the decision wouldn't affect the result. 2 minutes later Rossi was fouled in the area the Ref pointed at the spot but again the flag went up offside was given again and no penalty. An incident was spotted by the fans on the far side that we didn't see JEDWARD head butted Arron and seemed to be losing his cool more and more. The next few minutes got a little bit tasty on the pitch and we had to tell the lads to calm down and play football and try not to get involved in the silliness. We had another free kick that was put in to the back post and Tom did well to cut it back but still we could not get the 2nd goal. Then the thing that we had all feared happened a silly foul in our half up stepped the Ipswich player to hit a good free kick past jack and level the scores. Sax stepped the game up again and looked the team more likely to get the next goal and on 18 we won another corner that Arron put in Finchy flicked it on and Luke smashed it in, the goal was well celebrated on and off the pitch. Sax were playing with great belief and attacking at every opportunity on 20 a handball in the box Penalty given no off side flag this time. Arron got the ball and slammed it in to give Sax a bit of breathing space. Ipswich looked for something out of the game and JEDWARD rushed through to be taken out by Jack but the ref saw nothing wrong with it and the game carried on. A booking for each team late on was maybe more harsh on us than them but Sam is there to put in the tackles and we would be disappointed if he didn't.
This was a brilliant Sax performance and the fact the lads picked themselves up from the strange decisions and got on with the game is a great credit to them. A performance that we need to try and pull out of the bag every week and if we do the season will be a great Success.
Well done boys David
