MATCH REPORT for SUNDAY 28th October 2012
Stallions F C 3 St Michaels F C 5
The 2nd Round of the Arnold & May Beckley Cup saw St Michaels drawn away against Stallions F C who are a new team currently playing in Division 3. On the face of it an easy match for St Michaels but it was to prove full of incidents and not as easy as first thought.
The first real happening of the match came in the 7th minute when the referee deemed a slight kick out by Ben Baptiste after being fouled warranted a straight Red card. Even the Stallions players said that it should not be a sending off but the over fussy referee would not be swayed and St Michaels would have to play the remaining 83 minutes with 10 men.
This proved to spur St Michaels on and 6 minutes later a good through ball from Ronnie Mewes was finished off by Jack Jolly to open the scoring. In the 29th minute a breakaway by Stallions lead to an equaliser 1 – 1. Two minutes later St Michaels almost retook the lead when a great shot from Stuart Bird was well saved by the Stallion’s keeper. A minute before half time St Michaels had an even better chance when a great run by Adam Fahy ended when he was brought down in the box for a penalty. Unfortunately St Michaels and England share the same curse with penalties and Stuart Bird duly dispatched the ball outside of the post and the score remained at half time 1 – 1.
Despite only having ten men St Michaels still were having the majority of the play and in the 63rd minute Danny Baptiste was unlucky not to score with the keeper making a good save. However it was only 6 minutes later when a good ball from Stuart Bird left Ronnie Mewes with a simple tap in to restore the lead. Seven minutes later Ronnie Mewes returned the compliment passing to Stuart Bird to make the score 1 – 3. After the goal James Mckerrell replaced Ronnie Mewes who had a slight hamstring injury.
Two minutes later a scramble in the St Michaels area led to Stallions reducing the deficit at 2 – 3. But 3 minutes later a good run and cross from Dan Regan saw Danny Baptiste side foot volley in from a couple of yards to make the score 2 – 4. Five minutes later the victory was secured when an assist from Danny Baptiste saw Jack Jolly calmly score with his left foot to make the score 2 – 5. That was not to be the final scoring because in the last minute a long free kick sailed over Harry Graham’s head to make the final score 3 – 5.
In the end it turned out to be a battling performance by St Michaels, especially playing most of the game with only 10 men. Special mentions this week go to Danny Baptiste, Connor Reardon and Tom Pexton but Man of the match for the 2nd time this year goes to Jack Jolly for another skilful performance in midfield coupled with two more goals.
