The game was played on a cold morning with the pitch being soft after heavy overnight rain.
sporting won the toss and decided to switch ends so they had the wind on their backs. The game started with both teams cancelling each other out and sporting looking like a very well organised team.On 3 mins Andy got through on goal but his shot went just wide , sporting put us under a bit of pressure which resulted in them getting a corner which was easily dealt with by the defence with Jack S collecting the ball to finish off the attack. We then played some excellent football with Ed and Andy playing a brilliant 1 2 on the edge of the area with Ed going through to open the scoring. The next few minutes were played mostly in midfield with our defence working hard to keep our lead. Sporting had a free kick on 18 which jack S dealt comfortably with and then launched an attack straight away the ball went to Kyle who set up Andy to make it 2 0. sporting had some good pressure and they had a corner which was cleared but Sporting came back at us and with the ball being crossed in from the right and jack M not Knowing what was behind him scored what would be an excellent header if it was in the other end 2 1. Sporting were on the up and won another corner Jack s managed to get hold of this one and kicked the ball long it caused a bit of panic in the Sporting defence and with Ed working hard to close players down and being a nuisance to the defenders he won the ball and gave it to John in space who then crossed in to Andy who scored his 2nd to make it 3 1. The rest of the 1st half the Sporting goal was under constant pressure and Sax finished the half on top.
Half Time Sax 3 v 1 Sporting
2nd Half
The Sporting manager must have had some words at half time as the boys came out full of running and had us under pressure from the start, with Jack S making the strange decision to kick a ball that he could have picked up and being the lazy one of the team had not bothered to change his studs since summer he slipped as he kicked it and it dropped to a sporting player the next 30 seconds Sporting had about 4 attempts on goal with The whole defence getting in the way of shots,eventually a shot was headed by Finchy and it looped over Jacks head to make it 3 2 the supporters were getting nervous but the 2nd og of the game woke the Sax lads up and they played some good football. Ollie was brought on to replace Andy so that we could change the shape of the team a bit and on 46 connor was set up by John who made it 4 2 which helped to settle the team down a bit and we could then start to play our football again. The midfield were starting to dominate with Kyle getting the better of the Sporting number 4 and Fish winning tackles all over the pitch.Zach was put on to replace Connor who had worked hard all game as he always does, on 52 Ed who was having one of his best games of the season set up John who finished to make it 5 2 and the Sporting lads heads started to drop. We played some good football with the midfield getting the ball wide and lots of balls being put into the box with one of these being deflected out for a corner. John put in the ball and it eventually went to kyle who volleyed in to make it 6 2. From another corner the ball broke out to a Sporting player and Ed tracked him all the way back to make a challenge to prevent the ball being played in to our box a challenge that capped off a superb display that earnt him MOM. Jake V came on for the last few minutes to replace Ed. Sporting played a long ball from the back that Finchy headed in to the path of John who showed his great pace and strength to race clear and finish off the scoring 7 2.
Before the game the boys were told how important this game was and they did not let us down. The Sporting team will win more games than they lose this season. We can have a weeks break before the cup game 3 points clear at the top with an excellent goal difference which will hopefully keep us top next week when the other teams play. Well done boys again for a great game.
David
