Its been a roller coaster ride but we finished the calendar year where we wanted to be - still in the running for all four domestic trophies. It took another vintage Association performance to get us over this final fixture of the year.
With Darryl on his hospital bed with a "Number 1 Allergy" it was left to Chippy to pull on the gloves again - magnificent. With Steve and Kyle forced to withdraw Joel and Kim were reshuffled into a new look centre back pairing and they made the move to 4-3-3 look seemless - class. With Punter also suffering withdrawel symptoms Paget was our only sub-marine - fantastic. We were far from perfect though. Billy again showed it's the season of goodwill as he handed out another present, Ollie looked like he found out there were no presents under the tree for him - Pearcy had them but obviously wasn't sharing with anybody and Mark continued to pass to the angels and we were all looking for xmas cards from the ref (he duly obliged) - but underneath all that we showed what a good team we can be.
The ref missed a bang on pen in the 2nd minute as Pearcey's shot was saved by a Cobra defender and it then took 10 minutes or so to settle into the new shape as a long goal kick caught Kim flat footed and only a great full stretch save from Chippy denied them. A minute later a driving run by Kim from the back released Ollie who was fouled as he was setting himself - the first of too many poor reffing decisions which blighted what might have been a decent contest. In the 16th Jack's header from Ollie's corner just missed and in the 20th Ollie and Pearcey were in tune as their pace and joint pressing created an opening which Ollie shot narrowly wide. In the 25th Cobras scored against the run of play when Billy played them in! Five minutes later Joel was off with a nasty freak ankle twist and Dan was given an unexpected appearance from the bench.
We reshaped and in the last 15 of the first period we finally got going. Pearcey had an opening but rushed and blazed wide, Jack chested down and volleyed Chippy's long clearance just over (a marker for later!), Josh clicked into overdrive and a couple of trademark powerhouse runs almost opened them up and some slick team passing and movement passing pegged them back in their own half.
Five minutes after the interval Jack again headed just wide from Ollie's corner and just 2 minutes later we were awarded a soft penalty which Andy converted in style (a practice run!) to square the game. We proceeded to batter them for the rest of the half but a combination of great 'keeping, last ditch defending, poor reffing and general bad luck kept us out. A 53rd minute surge from Mark released Jack and his 25 yard effort was well saved. In the 55th Josh went on a pulsating run but he was just forced wide before he could pull the trigger. That was the spark that lit Josh's touch paper and he bossed the rest of the second period. In the 60th his lovely round the corner ball was just too sharp for Ollie.
In the 65th Ryan and Bowles powered down the left and Ryan unleashed a fierce drive just over the bar - we'll see more of this from the full backs as we develop 4-3-3. Sam hadn't stopped moving and pressing and worked his own opening in the 75th only to be denied by the post, Ollie pounced on the rebound but the 'keeper saved well (a move to be repeated with a different outcome in extra time). In the 76th and 80th minutes we put together 2 x 9 pass moves both ending with shots and saves and in between a great 30yd drive from Josh was again saved. In the 85th Jack and Ryan combined down the left and again Ryans powerful drive blazed just over so we moved into extra time.
4 minutes in a cleared corner was chested down by Jack 20/25 yards out and his low volley arrowed into the corner - magic. 2 minutes into the 2nd period a lovely run and shot from Sam brought out another good save but this time Olli was on hand and he drove the rebound into the ground and into the net for 3-1. With just 5 minutes to go Kim put his name on a header but had a Billy moment as he played them in and they closed the gap to 2-3. In the dying seconds we neglected the row Z principal and Pearcey was ruled to have handballed and they scored the resulting penalty to take the tie to a shoot out.
We won the toss and made them take the first penalty and when Mark made a mess of our 3rd pen it looked like curtains but Chippy came to the rescue with 2 great saves leaving Pearcey to clinch the ties with the last kick (that went down well!).
This is a long report of an eventful game. It wasnt a great performance but it was a brave one with all the trademarks of The Association's quality - we deserved to be in the hat for the next round. It's hard introducing new systems on the hoof but we dont have the luxury of practice games and it's great credit to all our players that we are able to take on board these sorts of changes and to once again respond to major events during the course of the game. As the pitch softened our better football and fitness came to the surface and in the second half it was all one way traffic with some neat incisive football that just lacked the final touch.
Jack and Sam had excellent 90 minutes and Josh pulled out his "A" game in the second period. Everyone deserves a mention but big up for Chippy - once again he made some great saves, well done Dan - it took only 10 minutes to shake of the ring rust, well done Kim - this was a "Kenny Burns" moment (look him up on the net). Well done to this seasons new boys, Mark and Pearcey. Thanks and well done everyone for working hard for each other and for finishing the year playing football on the floor with energy and skill.
We've won exactly nothing so far but if we keep the faith with playing football the right way we will get our rewards. One game at a time First is First.
