After paying due respect and observing an immaculate 2 minutes silence we were a little slow into our stride. In the 1st and 3rd Bowles was uncharecteristically shy in his early challenges and in trying to set the real tone Chippy conceded a soft 3rd minute free kick which was only kept out by a first class full stretch save from Revill. The casual approach continued through this early period, in the first 10 minutes promising moves broke down as Kim struggled to get the ball out of his feet and on the 3rd occassion as early as the 11th minute their resulting counter ended when Bowles was caught on the wrong side and behind and his recovering tackle conceded the penalty which gave them their early lead.
That was our wake up call and within 2 minutes Sam's quick and clever free kick was slipped to Chippy's equally quick and clever run - a top piece of football from both players - worth the admission money alone. It was all one way traffic for the rest of the half. In the 21st Kim netted with a trademark header on the run but this was frustratingly ruled out for offside. In the 22nd, by doing nothing and simply by responding to Chippy's call Kyle set up a move which went through Chippy, Sam and Olli before Josh added the Cherry with a low drive, edging us into a 2-1 lead. Two minutes later Josh went on a pulsating run only to drag his drive wide as glory beckoned. A blind inside passs by Chippy offered them a flicker of a chance that was snuffed out a minute later when Sam's curling freekick was headed home by a nervy Grange defence to extend our lead to 3-1.
We upped our tempo and good pressing from Mark led to a tempting cross into the 6 yard box but Olli had hesitated and was a couple of yards late in arriving. This was pretty typical of our general play in the final third when too often we failed to gamble or to play balls into the holes so we were too often predictible playing in front of them instead of running in behind. The times when we turned them tended to be with ball at feet running from central areas, typically Josh again in the 35th but he dragged his shot wide. A minute later Josh and Mark combined to slice them open but Olli was denied by the 'keepers feet, the 'keeper coming out on top against Olli, Josh and Glen in 5 one-on-ones throughout the game. With half time approaching a direct freekick around the halfway line was driven in by Chippy and headed on by Kim for Olli to net for 4-1, an improvised set piece combination that's paid off several times for us.
Alarmingly we switched off at the restart and with only half hearted attempts to track runners it took them just 2 minutes to carve straight through us to bring them back to 4-2. As with last seasons encounters they never gave up. The hope provided by that early second half goal plus our high number of squandered chances meant that we were forced to work much harder in the second half that we should have needed to. Around 10 minutes into the second half Ryan came on for Mark, Ryan playing wide left and Glen switching wide right. In the 59th Olli and Kim combined to play Josh in one-on-one on the 'keeper but he chose power over placement and skied it. A minute later Chippy played in Glen in the same way with the same result. Glen made way for Jack in the 65th returning from injury for his first appearance of the season. Our failure to convert encouraged them to throw players forward but we defended well enough and in the 78th it was Billy's defensive work which saw him steal the ball and release Kyle whose angled pass released Josh who made no mistake for 5-2. In the dying seconds Revill played Dodge Ball on his own as they chalked up a bizzare late consolation goal to close the scoring at 5-3 to us.
On the plus side there was lots to admire. Despite going behind we kept our heads and kept to the game plan. Individually and collectively we are starting to play in patches, towards the level that we know we can. Our team work, communication and support for each other was great and that frightens the opposition. To win things we need everyone to step up to the plate and to up their game - we cant go through the season expectin a Revill supersave, a Chippy tackle or a Josh screamer to turn a game for us. Today everybody turned it up a notch, Sam was outstanding again, Billy stood out not because of his lack of errors but because of the postive things in his performance strong clean tackles, headers and distribution. MOM goes to Kyle, a fuss free powerful performance, maybe Josh's boots played a part
There's no doubt that 4 at the back gives us a much more solid feel (although it wont protect us against our own mistakes) plus it gives us attacking variables from the back - not only did Chippy score but Kyle, Billy and Bowles picked their moments to go forward with more intelligence. The downside is that without the central defensive screening player (in our usual shape) we are restricted centrally and clipping the attacking threat of Sam and Josh is not the way forward - we'll take a couple of minutes to go over some creative alternatives in the first 5 minutes on Wednesday.
We've won nothing yet but we have reached our first target which was to be in title contention at the halfway mark. With 50% of the league campaign completed the Title remains in our hands - lets keep it that way by treating every league game 'til the end of season as a knockout fixture. Well done everyone
