Starlands played Castle Vale on Sunday. They were lucky to play the game with many other fixtures suffering due to the freezing temperatures.
The referee didn't turn up, and a Castle Vale supporter kindly stepped into the breach.
Any suggestion that he was less than impartial was put to one side especially after her failed to give Castle Vale a clear penalty for an over exubriant Marcus pulling back the striker who was bearing down on goal in the opening minutes!
Starlands won 2-1 in the last fixture against Castle Vale, but today Castle Vale looked a different side.
They looked hungrier for the ball - and Starlands were guilty of ball watching on too many occasions.
There were times when Starlands broke, and instead of the supporting player taking a chance and running through on goal, they waited for the ball to be played and then went. Obviously the defence were given time to recover.
Castle Vale JKS - looked really lively and were putting together some free flowing passing moves.
Not long into the game a through ball led to a corner, and a direct shot hit the back post and came out.The ball was scrambled away eventually, but again - The boys have got to clear the danger!
Ben made a good double save with his legs early on - and the boys were soon employed into rear guard action.
A high bouncing ball came towards the goal and as Ben came out ,the striker headed it over him and into the back of the net. A soft goal, but not much he could do about it.
The second goal was superbly tucked away, a nice move from JKS with one touch passing released the forward who slotted it hard and low into the bottom right corner as Ben came out on the angle. 2-0
Starlands were unlucky not to get a goal back, when a nice move involving the industrious Jed,Oscar and Josh led to Kieran narrowly missing the ball at the back post.Such a shame seeing as Kieran had made the effort to get up and support the attack. Great determination.
Half time came, and probably at the wrong time for Starlands because they seemed to be either waking up or warming up! and putting a bit of pressure on JKS.
Jed came off at half time making way for Lewis. Starlands were now kicking downhill and continued to apply the pressure. But, true to form the opposition only need one chance and they took it, 3-0 from another ball that was not cleared first time.The ball rebounded off a player and went past the unsighted goalkeeper.
Starlands never gave up...and despite the bitter cold conditions the crowd continued to cheer the boys on!
Another open goal went begging for Starlands when the normally preditor instincts of Lewis went missing. Josh was having a good game spurned on by the crowd he was tracking back on occasions and also finding a few nice passes.
Oscar came off replaced by Jed - who was putting in a proper shift, plenty of effort and toil.
Marcus was his usual steady and reliable self, and Zak was also coming into the game more with a few telling interceptions and even managed a long range shot.
JKS were the better side - and showed great improvement from the last time the two teams played, a well deserved 4-0 win.
JOSH was awarded MAN OF THE MATCH for his efforts & display.
There is room for improvement result wise but 100% effort was not missing. Hopefully we can welcome Luke & Ellis back soon.
