The Belve had to face the ten men of Wey Athletic in the cold & snowy conditions at Redlands this evening, it what turned out to be a good work out for the lads.
The first half gave little to shout about from the Belvedere point of view. With some solid & organised defending from Athletic, the Belve were finding it hard to break through their 9 outfield men who were always behind the ball. Like in recent matches the Belve still lacked the end product and final ball and when some good opportunities did come to the usually reliable Hine, he failed to hit the target on numerous attempts. It was going to need something special to break the deadlock it seemed and then just before half time, a through ball from Campbell-Bell found Hallet who finished with what has to be said as a goal of the season candidate. He controlled nicely on around 25 yards out and looped a half volley over the stranded athletic GK, smashing off the underside of the bar and in. 1-0
The second half seemed a completely different story. With the Athletic short on numbers giving the Belve an extra man and the Belves fitness, it started to pay dividends with players getting more space and time on the ball. The Belvedere danger men J.Rawlings and Campbell-bell started to control the game and were at the heart of what was to become wave after wave of attacks against the Athletic back line. Again Hine still having an off day missed more chances, but with Howard finding Terry on the inside of the box he made no mistake and drilled a low hard shot to the keepers bottom right.2-0 Now there was no way back for the Athletic and Campbell-Bell ran on to a loose ball, beat two defenders before slotting into the bottom corner.3-0.
It was finally Hines turn to open his account for the day as he was found by Sowerby to go one on one and chose to round the keeper to make certain of his finish.4-0
The next goal was a great effort (another goal of season contender) an exquisite chip on the corner of the area by J. Rawlings curling and lobbing into the top corner for 5-0. Ross-MacKenzie Playing the midfield holding role in today’s game wanted to get in on the act and had a few surging runs forward with strikes but none troubling the athletic keeper, but he got his reward when sliding a great through ball to Hine, who now had his scoring boots back on and made it 6-0 finishing form close range. The final goal came from a brother double act, where J.rawlings squared into the box to find young L.Rawlings who finished neatly making it 7-0.
The evening’s game was just what the lads need to get the confidence back up before some big cup games coming up. They really showed what they can do when sticking to their passing game and staying as a team, talking and working together. The second half although was against ten men still showed flashes of great football and good organisation all over from the back four to the midfield five. There was tuff weather conditions and a physical defence to get past but overall Belvedere made it look easy by playing the right way.
