Woohoo! Our first cup win where we've actually played. More details to follow..
Starting Line up:
Phil (GK)
Dale (RB), Simon (CB), Danny (CB), Gary (LB)
Richard (RM), JP (CM), Brett (CM), Matt P (LM)
Lee (CF), Kyle (CF)
On the subs bench were Adam, Mark and new boy Jon.
We knew nothing at all about opponents except that they had the misfortune to play in white shirts on the worst day weather wise of the season. The pitch was a little boggy to begin with and got a lot worse but at least we managed to finish our game.
Both teams started off brightly but it was the Eagles who had the better of the first 20 minutes. They were actually dominating the match and putting us under a lot of pressure. They had a fair few shots on goal but not many were on target. Indeed, their finishing from very good positions throughout the half was rather poor as we rode our luck a little bit. I only had a couple of saves to make and the closest they came to scoring was when their player was one-on-one, but his low shot came off the post and Gary managed to blast it to safety.
Our first goal came on a rare attack. The goalie came out for a corner or cross that he completely missed and in the ensuing scramble, Brett had a shot that was blocked by the defender. It came out as far as Richard who crossed it back for Brett to shoot again, this time into an empty net. It was against the run of play at the time but for once we took the chance when it came.
Our second goal came a few minutes later and was the result of lovely through ball from Gary, which put Lee in on goal. He coolly chipped the goalie to give a us 2-0 lead which we held due to more poor finishing from the oppo until half time. We almost had a third after a free kick by Gary rebounded off the post and the keeper was lucky that it went straight into his arms.
By this time it was starting to chuck it down and the strong wind which had been playing havoc with the goal kicks made it even worse.
The Eagles got the second half under the way and got a corner which came to nothing. From the goal kick, Lee (I think, though someone else should confirm) put the ball out wide left to Matt P, who went on a run that took on a couple of defenders and finished off with a shot into the far corner of the net. That goal seemed to knock the wind out of the oppo and it was pretty much all us from then on. Adam and Jon came on for Kyle and Richard, then Mark for JP. Jon did well on his debut with busy runs and making good use of the ball. We were playing good football, despite the torrential rain and increasing stickiness of the centre circle. Somebody (either Matt or Jon) had a shot cleared spectacularly off the line in mid-air by a defender, another shot was turned past the post by the keeper.
Their late consolation came after an uncharacteristic bit of slack defending on the edge of the box when 3 or 4 of our players failed to get the ball away. An oppo player finally managed to put his boot through it and it ended up past me (as I was doing a power slide on my back) in the goal. It was their only shot on target in the second half so it's a bit irritating that we couldn't keep a clean sheet, but the main thing is, we have our first cup win and we're into the 3rd round which is away to Reigate Hornets.
Footnote: Kyle MacKinnon is never allowed to wash the kit again as he turned up 20 minutes late with the kit still wet. Why it wasn't dry when he's had it for two weeks and we were actually supposed to play last week anyway is something he's yet to answer...
