Smithswood Firs travelled to neighbours Earlswood Town for Saturday’s match which was played in heavy fog for the last fifteen minutes.
Paul Ryder had one change enforced upon him with Sam Hulme missing so Aaron Anderson moved up front with Khalil Harrison dropping in at wing back. Henry Donaghey was back and took his place on the bench with Chris Else and new signing Troy Smith.
Starting Line-up:
Cottrill
Rammal Robinson, Weeks, Richard Robinson
Harrison, Thomas (Capt.), Crawford, Bertie, Hewitt
Anderson, Tyron Smith
Subs: Donaghey, Else, Troy Smith
Both teams had half chances early on with Tyron Smith firing wide for the visitors. A lot of the chances were long range efforts with Trea Bertie shooting wide followed by Martin Crawford who came closest for Smithswood but saw his effort bounce off the post and wide.
Smithswood did have the ball in the back of the net with their best move of the game as Curtis Thomas curled a fantastic ball in behind for Tyron Smith but as he turned away to celebrate his goal he saw the off-side flag up to disallow it. Smith had another great chance shortly after but put it straight at the keeper as he tried to get his body around to shoot on his right foot rather then hit it early with his left.
At half time Smithswood would have been the slightly happier team as they had the better chances but didn’t test the Earlswood keeper enough. Martin Crawford had gone closest and was having a fantastic game in the middle of the pitch with Curtis Thomas while Dale Hewitt and Trea Bertie were threatening running from deep with their pace. Tyron Smith was working tirelessly up top with Aaron Anderson while Lewis Cottrill and his defence had not had anything to do.
Trea Bertie fired high and wide on his left just after the re-start before Earlswood Town took the lead with a lucky goal from a shot heading wide which took a big deflection off Richard Robinson’s head and diverted past Lewis Cottrill.
Dale Hewitt and Trea Bertie both had runs which ended up with a shot wide of the post and an easy save for the keeper. The away side were getting in some good positions but just couldn’t find the lethal touch in the final third of the pitch. Their best chance of an equaliser fell to Dale Hewitt in a goal mouth scramble but as he went to shoot e was just too far away from the ball and couldn’t get any power on it and the keeper saved easily.
Earlswood put the game beyond doubt from a direct free kick as Danny Holliday fired his shot around the wall into the far corner without Lewis Cottrill moving. A great free kick although Cottrill won’t be happy that the ball went in the far corner.
As the fog descended even more the game fizzled out a little as visibility got worse and if the game had kicked off ten minutes later it might well have been abandoned.
It was a bad day at the office for Smithswood Firs who just weren’t good enough in front of goal. Lewis Cottrill didn’t have a save to make as his goal wasn’t threatened that much but the deflection and quality free kick were enough to win it for Earlswood on the day.
