St Michaels F C 3 A F C Heathside 1
After no games for 4 weeks it came as no surprise that St Michaels started the game slowly and some of the early play did not have the quality that we had seen earlier in the season. The enforced absence however meant that players had returned from holidays and injuries and Scott Munday had a full squad to pick from.
The first half saw numerous chances not converted by St Michaels who were having by far the lion’s share of the ball. Once again they were the victim of some extremely bad tackles from Heathside, mostly ignored by the referee, in particular one good claim for a penalty when Adam Fahy was upended in the penalty area. The fear of a breakaway goal was always a threat and in the 43rd minute it became a reality when a mistake in the St Michaels defence led to an easy goal for Heathside.
H T : 0 - 1 to A F C Heathside.
The 2nd half started in much the same way as the 1st with St Michaels pressing but with no end product. A change was needed and in the 51st minute Aaron Hughes replaced Danny Baptiste and the formation was changed to a more attacking 4-4-2.
13 minutes later the substitution brought dividends with Aaron Hughes beating 3 Heathside players and blasting the ball through a crowded Heathside defence from the edge of the box for the equaliser.
With renewed confidence St Michaels continued to attack and 12 minutes later Ronnie Mewes showed great skill in the box scoring a fine goal to give St Michaels the lead. With some legs tiring on the 80th minute Jamie Guyatt replaced Adam Fahy and in the 84th minute James Mckerrell replaced the bandaged Jack Meade. With just a minute to go the result was sealed when a brilliant through ball from Aaron Hughes was cleverly converted by Arran Amer to make the final result 3 - 1 to St Michaels.
A good workman-like performance by St Michaels with some of the early ragged play due to the lack of match practice from the previous 4 weeks. This result combined with South Darenth drawing their last 2 games means that the League title is in our own hands with just 9 games to go.
Notable performances from Sam Meade and Dan Regan at the back, Jack Meade with another untiring performance in the middle and a non stop effort upfront from Ronnie Mewes who for a lot of the game was up front on his own. The Man of the Match however goes to Aaron Hughes, who although only on the field for 39 minutes totally changed the game St Michaels way. Heathside had no answer to his skills and it came as no surprise that he got the equaliser and was instrumental in everything that St Michaels did, culminating in a superb pass for the 3rd goal.
