The game today was played on a very cold morning with the pitch being well prepared by Lewis and Shirley KO was put back to 10 30 to give the frost on the pitch time to go off. The boys were all up and ready for the game and looking forward to playing another 1st division team in the cup.
Witnesham won the toss and got KO, and it was clear from the KO that it was going to be a tough game. The wasps put the defence under early pressure which was dealt with well and with a long kick from Jack dropping into midfield the wasps player fouled 1 of the lads to give Sax a free kick just inside the wasps half, Finchy put a decent ball into the box and the ball was eventually put wide for a goal kick, on 4 minutes the ball went wide to John and he gave the wasps their 1st warning with a strong shot across the keeper which went just wide. On 5 mins the ball was played wide to John and he took the defender on beat him and played an absolutely brilliant cross in that Rossi volleyed in to the roof of the net to open the scoring the goal was something that would be good to see at any level of football and was a great way to open the scoring Sax 1 v 0 Wasps. The goal woke both sides up and the wasps were playing some good stuff and making the Sax boys work harder than they have had to for a long time. Sax were back on the attack but the wasps no.5 was breaking up attacks and throwing himself into challenges all over the place in defence, Finchy got the ball in defence and made a run from 1 box to the other but his final shot was not as good as he would have liked and the keeper made a comfortable save. The Wasps were putting us under a lot of pressure and Jack was working hard behind the defence to keep us in the lead. After 3 -4 mins of pressure the ball came to Ed in midfield who played a brilliant ball to John when the easier pass would have been to George John didn’t let Ed down when he burst into the box and smashed the ball into the back of the net to make it 2 - 0. On 23 the Wasps keeper made a great save to keep them in the game as if that had gone in it would have a long way back to save the game. 2 mins later the keepers work paid off when the ball fell to Wasps No. 9 who hit a lovely shot from outside the box that dipped under the bar and gave Jack no chance Sax 2 v 1 Wasps game on again. The rest of the half was end to end stuff with both teams going close and Sax could have probably scored more if we had finished as good as we usually do.
Half Time Sax 2 v 1 Wasps.
The 2nd half started with Connor replacing George who was struggling with a throat infection and he was struggling to keep up with the game. The 2nd half started as we had finished with both teams going for the next goal as the next 1 was going to be very important, Sax got a free kick on 42 which was about 20 yards out after some discussion Ed stepped up to take it and it looked a goal all the way until the Wasps keeper pulled off a great save to put the ball out for a corner. A couple of minutes later Rossi scored a goal which just seemed to trickle over the line and would have been a disappointing goal for the keeper to concede Sax 3 v 1 Wasps. The wasps looked good and were pushing for a goal which was making it a very open game and a good game to watch the Wasps number 9 had another great chance to get 1 back but his shot went just over much to the players and supporters relief. Kris was having another great game at the back and breaking out lots of the play and Ollie was looking good at left back and looks like he is going to be hard to get out of that position with Tom on right and Finchy and Kris in the middle the defence is stronger than it has ever been, Fish and Kyle were working hard in midfield with Kyle looking to be struggling a bit today but he was still working hard to keep us ahead. We won a free kick about 25 yards out that Ed wanted this one was an absolute beauty of a free kick that Ronaldo would have been happy with top corner and the game looked dead and buried until the lino raised his flag for a foul that he had seen on the edge of the area the ref ruled the goal out and Ed will have to wait a while before he “scores” another like that.
A few minutes later Zach got on to replace Ollie and Jake went on to replace Kyle who looked absolutely dead on his feet, Connor had a penalty appeal turned down and Zach and Jake both had chances to put the game to bed it turned out not to matter when the Ref blew the whistle and signalled our progress to the semi’s.
Witnesham will be playing in Div 2 next season and they will do very well with the players that they have got and I can’t see how they are bottom as I think they are 1 of the better teams we have played, they were all great to play against and the managers and parents were a pleasure to have at Sax.
Well done boys we keep the run going and move on to the game against Martlesham next Sat top and in the Semi-final of the cup.
David
