Although we were well prepared we again started far too casual with Kyle and Dazza conceding early soft possession. By the 5th Dazza was back on his game and he started a move in our own half which finished with him being upended in the box, Kim converted the resulting penalty in good style.
Sam and Ollie were good in possession in the wide areas creating openings for themselves and others notably Ollie firing just wide in the 10th and Jack just wide in the 15th following a clever interchange between the Colsons. It was all one way - in the 16th a nuts from Ollie played in Kim who was closed down as he pulled the trigger, in the 17th Ollie's quick throw led to Sam firing just wide and in the 18th Ollie's cross just eluded Jack at the far post - this was a game that saw Ollie deliver his season's best performance in terms of chance creation.We were almost punished though for our failure to convert chances when seconds later a loose ball from Billy saw them level things but that goal was luckily ruled offside.
5 minutes later Billy had another nightmare moment when with lots of time he nicked a ball off and around Revill who luckily recovered to clear off his own line. In the 30th minute we doubled our lead when Kim played a lovely ball to Ollie, his dribbly chin run released Josh who's scooped cross to the far post was netted by the 'keeper under pressure from Jack - goal to Josh as it looked that way to me. In the 35th Ollie played in Kim who finished well but was ruled offside and a minute later Ollie's cross was just too strong for Jack poaching again at the far post - on another day that combo of Ollie/Kim/Jack might have had a hatful - well done.
They responded with a typical route one counter and Kyle took the yellow as he broke up their move with a foul. In the last minutes Jack/Kim/Sam came close before the ref blew for the break.
At the restart Glen came on for Billy, and Pearcy for Sam. Jack was shuffled wide and Dazza was asked to hold deeper and pick and time his runs to give Josh a licence to drive forward. Within a minute of the restart a full bloodied tackle and drive from Josh opened them up like can of sardines as he then slipped in Ollie who's cut back was passed into the net by the late arriving Dazza - we do like that. Exactly a minute later a well timed interception from Glen released Josh and another lungbursting run ended with a far post cross - this time Jack was exactly on hand to net from close range, 4-0 up and game over.
In the 52nd minute Jack took the ball on his chest under pressure, turned and netted a sweet 20 yard volley but the goal was wrongly ruled out for a foul by Jack! In the 60th minute another sweeping move ended when Ollie cut back his ball to Josh who drove home in his stride for 5-0. In the 75th Kim played in Ollie who almost sliced the ball in half and 5 minutes later a strong header from Mark released Kim who took so long to turn it was running into injury time. Jack continued to graft on the left and some good pressing saw the ball break to Bowles who's slotted a ball beyond their back line for Pearcy to break from an onside position and coolly slot home rounding off the scoring at 6-0.
In the first half we were guilty of playing too many, too casual, crossfield balls in our defensive third - we have to be sharper. All passing has to have a purpose. In this part of the pitch it is not only about posssession but also about changing the angle of the platform for attack and stretching and working their strikers. If we play across the back we cannot invite the interceptions and put ourselves under pressure. If in doubt - safety first. For a period of 15/20 minutes in the second half we also lost some shape as we started to play longer balls in and from midfield and as players started to try to play off the shoulder looking for long balls over the top - this is not really good enough. At 6-0 up we are not chasing the game - we should be keeping the ball with a purpose, we should be continuing to work openings and as they come onto us looking for the ball - we should then be exploiting the space and openings as a unit.
The report barely mentions our solid work at the back - the clean sheet was hard won. Chippy was clinical at the back and Revill's kicking was concentrated and efficient as we dealt with their long ball game. MOM was close today. Dazza was on top of his game as was Chippy but Josh just edged it for that powerful period at the start of the second half which shut the door on their thoughts of a second half fightback
We've won absolutely nothing yet and this will mean nothing unless we stay business like from now until the end of the season.
