MATCH REPORT for SUNDAY 9th December 2012
Babylon F C 1 St Michaels F C 7
The Ist Round of the Betts Cup saw St Michaels drawn away against a fellow 1st Division team in Babylon F C at Elite Venues in Gravesend. St Michaels started brightly and after only 4 minutes Adam Fahy was brought down in the box for what everyone watching with the exception of the referee thought was a certain penalty. This was to be just one of a sequence of mystifying decisions from the referee. St Michaels did not let this affect their game and on 11 minutes a good run from Connor Reardon led to Jack Jolly tapping in to open the scoring. Eight minutes later the score was doubled when a great through ball from Ryan Nibbs saw Adam Fahy crash in from just inside the box. A minute later St Michaels added another with a good ball from Danny Baptiste being side footed into the net by Jack Jolly. Six minutes later the lead was further increased with a great shot from outside the box from Tom Pexton. Three minutes later Stuart Bird was brought down in the box but the St Michaels penalty curse continued with Jack Jolly’s shot being saved.The remainder of the first half saw a booking for Ben Baptiste in the 39th minute and 4 minutes later a booking for a Babylon player.
With the wind becoming a major issue in the game Babylon started to play better and were now having much more of the game. After 65 minutes James Mckerrell replaced Harry Smart. A minute later Babylon’s pressure led to a mistake in the St Michael’s defence leading to a goal to make the score 1 – 4. Two minutes later a great save from Harry Graham stopped Babylon from adding to their score. This spurred on St Michaels and a pass from Stuart Bird saw Ben Baptiste score a fine goal from just inside the box. Six minutes later Ryan Nibbs got a yellow card and a minute later a great shot from Danny Baptiste crashed against the bar. Three minutes later another pass from Stuart Bird found Danny Baptiste whose good shot found the net to make the score 1 – 6. The game still had another goal in it and when a Babylon player handled in the box it gave Jack Jolly another chance to complete his hat trick which he duly did by placing the ball low into the net. The final score was 1 – 7 to St Michaels and sees them now playing A F C Heathside in the next round.
A good performance from the team with special mentions for Tom Pexton and Jack Jolly and also for Ryan Nibbs whose disciplined performance in the midfield holding role was only marred by his booking. Man of the Match this time goes to Connor Reardon with a great performance at the heart of defence.
