We looked like we had finally started a match at the tempo that we'd been struggling to find of late but we were still a bit patchy. Dazza's 4th minute quick freekick found Kim in acres but he lashed the ball high and wide and the chance was wasted. Neil was slow in possession from their corner failing to capitalise on the pre-match instructions and set up for counters " Sam outside the 18 yard box Ollie this side of the centre circle". Neil repeated the "error" shortly after but then went on to produce one of his seasons best. In the 9th minute Ollie was sharpest sending Josh away from a quick throw but Josh had plenty to do as he muscled his way through two strong challenges before driving us into a 1-0 lead. Great stuff. In the 18th Josh returned the favour, he was the 4th player in quick succession to press them at the top end, his ball released Ollie who finished with a neat dink, lovely. A 21st minute freekick from Sam was fumbled into the net as Kim closed in and it was good to see Kim chancing his arm again in the six yard box. In the 24th a quick free kick from Dazza was headed on by Kim to Ollie who duly obliged for 4-0.
The 29th minute saw us earn three corners in a row, 8,9 and 10 of the first 30 minutes - we failed to convert any and our game then spiralled down. Ollie sent Josh clear but after sodding about he lashed the ball high and wide, Ollie flopped a one on one and we couldnt add to our tally. Passes were starting to go astray and we were slow or casual in front of goal.
Ollie took his leave at half time after putting in a high energy, effective first 45. The reshuffle and instructions were simple. Bowles came in with a clear brief to hit every ball behind Kim - their right back was poor and they were stretched down to 10 men. With Sam nursing a tight groin Ryan went top end as our best option pace player. In the second minute Ryan went clear but lacked the composure to finish, a minute later Sam went clear but he also took his shot far too early under no pressure. Ben had been off the pace for much of the game and when it broke to him in the 50th his reactions let him down, Kim's open goal miss in the 55th was shameful and Ben's 62nd minute attempt was woefully underhit. In between Bowles took it upon himself to do his best to slow the game either back pedalling 20 yards every time the ball came on to him or hitting full pitch width square balls. Dazza joined in the lets play slow policy either repeatedly turning in with ball at feet, playing blind balls with head down or flicking balls off the ground when on the floor passes were simple and easy options.
This lack of discipline from individual players infected the rest of the team. In the 67th minute Josh broke clear and clinically finished for 5-0 with a perfect lob, fantastic, but four minutes later through on goal he decided to showboat and wasted a chance to turn the screw. Against 10 men for 34 minutes we had added just 1 goal and it wasnt until the 79th that we injected some life into our play when a sweeping trademark passing move was finished by Neil's low drive on the half turn - Neil's run and finish was a much needed injection of urgency and anger that led to a late flourish. In the 82nd Ryan raced through on to Glen's long clearance and finally settled himself to bag our 7th. Kim added our 8th with a late penalty disguising the fact that Ryan had taken too long to finish of the move himself.
Aside from the odd individual errors, Kyle, Sam and Jack were solid/consistent performers throughout the 90 minutes.
Although we scored 8 and kept a clean sheet we could and should have made more of this opportunity to improve our goal difference and put pressure on the leaders. We rode our luck at the back on a couple of occassions - well done Glen (again), All that aside we showed what we can do when we lift the pace of our game and in patches we saw glimpses of our better darker side. Lets take this into next weeks QF v Silver Swifts.
