You have to be good looking to play good football so we had a three goal start before kick off!
Despite the 2 week lay off we were quick out of the blocks. In the 2nd minute Chippys lofted line ball was chased down by Lee to earn a corner. Ollie's quality delivery found Chippy attacking the back post - 1-0 - lets have it. Minutes later Darryl, Kim and Lee combined, Lee's cross just too strong for Sam. The next 10 minutes saw us taking far too long in possession and we conceded an ugly equaliser before we got back to the pace of our game.
In the 15th minute Ollie's corner was converted by Darryl sneaking between their static centrebacks - he didnt need to jump. Minutes later Kim, Olli and Sam put together a slick passing exchange which was converted by Olli as he cooly rounded the 'keeper, 3-1 and cruising. In the 22nd minute Steve released Ryan, a strong 50/50 challenge saw the ball run to Kim who's quick lay off to Ollie was cut back to Ryan leaving him to finish with a fierce tight angled drive.
At 4-1 up we eased of the gas and the next 23 minutes saw us fall back into all our worst habits. There were the odd fluid moments but during this period key players lost shape and discipline. We became very narrow. Too often we were caught running on the ball with heads down into dead ends very rarely looking up to play simple ball. Not once we did we recycle and rebuild which was disappointing given our quality and the poor opposition. The pitch didnt help but we needed to be more ruthless in this period.
At the restart we were punished when we attempted a 30 yard cross field from deep in left back territory - we covered this at training - the error was compounded when we failed at three attempts to put a foot through the ball/clear and conceded to allow them back at 4 -2.
Neils half time introduction caused them some uncertainty at the other end and in the 47th minute he was still in warm up mode as he failed to covert his header from Ollie's cross. Two minutes later it was more of the same as Neil latched onto Kims threaded through ball only to pass back to their 'keeper. A minute later Neil broke through again in the central area and he was brought down going clear. Sam's wicked conversion of the resultant freekick was what we needed and 5 minutes later Neil got on the sheet with his second bite of the ball.
Around the 55th minute mark Ollie skinned three men and passed to Kim who turned neatly to set himself up with a left foot finish - 7-2. In the 60th minute Ollie repeated the trick this time releasing Neil - his left foot finish was instinctive and was reward for good movement. We were rampant at this stage with Joel and Darryl creating driving openings but both failing to take the right options as the opportunities opened up. Kim went on a box to box rampage but went right back to the playground as he chose to try to round the 'keeper instead of burying it - he gambled and lost - it happens when your running riot.
As the last 10 approached Steve and Ryan linked well and pushed the ball through to Neil, his lofted, cushioned pass left Ollie with the easiest of headed finishes. Darryl rounded us up to 10 as he converted another of Ollie's corners but not before we'd allowed them to run at us unchallenged for 40 yards and to get their third consolation goal.
We were a bit Jeckle and Hyde today but 10 goals from 7 different player tells the story of what a strong team we are. For long periods we were provoked with some on the edge tackling but our response was to score goals and not to retalliate. It was all gravy today. Bring it on
