We arrived early and prepared well but were strangely disfunctional for periods of the game.
The last message before we lined up was to keep all corners short or driven low as we would get little arial change from set pieces against The League's biggest side. Our first corner in the 3rd minute was floated in by Ollie! That lack of discipline/team play was a feature again of parts of our game and was the most frustrating aspect of what at times was a decent performance. A minute later Kyle lost concentration, got sucked in and Olli redeemed himself closing down in our right hand corner. Another minute later (only the 5th minute) Sam gave away a cheap free kick 20 yards out (again we spoke about this pre-match) and we were lucky to escape damage from the resulting freekick. In the 9th minute Mark took a wild swipe at the ball conceding possession and the throw. In the 15th Kyle ran infield and out of ideas gifting possession in a dangerous central area. Ollie floated an indirect freekick a minute later and in the 16th Dazza was caught in possession for the third time in this brief opening period.
It took 22 minutes for us to show any real quality when Josh turned a defender, drove for the byline and hit a perfect low cross which somehow Kim managed to miss completely. A quick change of tactics followed with Kim moving out wide left (where he put in a good shift) and with Sam being moved to link with Jack (resulting in Sam setting up 3 goals from open play). The game turned in an instant. Kim won the ball wide left and slotted a through ball to Sam who's instant lay off was seized by Jack to drive home for 1-0. 10 Minutes later Kim again won left hand possession and released Sam on a mazy dribble, Jack's run split the defenders and he netted Sam's cross with a driving header. We were rampant at this stage with Josh and Dazza just too powerful in the middle - a trademark meaty tackle and strong run from Josh saw him play in Sam and a cute lay off left Dazza with the easiest of finishes for 3-0.
They came back into the game against the run of play in the last 5 minutes of the half when Revill reacted well but just couldn't keep out a cruelly deflected long shot and a minute later we had a spell of ping pong in our own 6 yard box with 5 of our players failing to keep out a slippery Ende striker. Coming back to 3-2 they thought they had a chance, i thought they had two chances, "Fat" and "Slim" and slim was out of town.
Olli played on the periphery of the first half and struggling with a knock the substitution decision was easy and probably saved the inevitable yellow or red cards which were always in the background. Bill came on and had and excellent second period but as a team we started the second period like we did the first - poorly, Dazza travelling too far with the ball with no real intent and conceding possession and Mark being caught by balls and runners behind. With Dazza hobbling from a heavy tackle he was left free to wander up top with Jack sitting and it was that switch which settled us down again. Jack won a tackle centrally and recycled early to Dazza who for once moved the ball on quick to Sam who netted to finish a seamless move for 4-2
Jack spent the last 30 sitting in the middle and the game opened up for us with quality running on both sides by Kyle and Kim and good movement from Sam and Josh. With around 15 minutes to go we were awarded a direct free kick in our half. Joel stepped up and launched a ball which on another day Dazza might have headed home but today he didnt but his feint fooled the 'keeper getting Joel on the scoresheet. That was followed 10 minutes later by a goal from Chippy who was quickest to react when the 'keeper spilled Sam's freekick. Those 2 late goals from Joel and Chippy were deserved rewards for their solid performances - when all around were losing their heads those two kept a lid on things with very mature performances, well done.With a 4 goal cushion we played out the last 10 minutes with 10 men to avoid aggravating Dazza's injury.
We all know that it was another disjointed performance and that there's more, much more to come. We need to forget about forcing up our individual performance levels and concentrate on doing the basic things well within the structure of the team - that's when we excel, when we play for each other rather than for ourselves. Today not enough of us were singing from the same hymn sheet at the same time but we won and we won convincingly booking our place in a final. That's what this game was - a stepping stone. We'll think about the final in due course but lets turn our attention to next week's game v Grange United in The Bert Yabsley. We're the holders and cannot think about giving up that Trophy to Grange or anybody else so that's the plan - win next weeks game.
There was lots to admire today, I thought Chippy and Joel were great today and Kim, Sam and Josh are showing signs of real quality but i'll give MOM to Jack, there were a few mistakes in ution but first class positional discipline on and off the ball.
Finally, we've still got players with significant outstanding subs and i would like these clearing before we go into the final month of the season.
