07/11/10: Oddies (7) v (3) The Victory Club
Scorers: Lamb, Davison, Jackson
Team: Rodgers (GK), Hudson, Bunyan, Davison (c), Robson, Fisher (Hunter), Collins, Lamb, Smiles, Harding, Stores (Jackson)
Unused Subs: M. Dryden, Lewis, Mountford, White
Yellows: None
Reds: None
A late second half collapse saw the Victory Club slump to a fourth league defeat of the season as opponents Oddies ran out 7-3 winners.
Following last week’s struggle to get a team out the Victory found themselves with plenty of options as caretaker managers were able to choose from a seventeen man squad for this encounter. The managerial duo, elected to keep faith with the majority of the side who battled hard to earn a point against Jollies seven days ago and made just the two changes. Regular goalkeeper, Lewis Swan, was rested and replaced in goal by Alex Rodgers whilst in the centre of midfield Graham Lamb came in for Lee Hermiston. New signing, Jonathan Lewis, started the game on the bench. For the first time this season the Victory sported their green away strips (last season’s home ones for anyone who wants to be pedantic!).
The game began at breakneck speed with both sides eager to gain the early initiative. Alex Rodgers was called into action twice inside the first quarter of an hour as he made an outstanding save diving to his right to divert a shot wide and then he followed that up by making another fine save to keep out a header from point blank range.
The Victory, who were playing some nice football, responded by going close themselves when James Smiles forced the keeper to tip his rasping long range shot over the bar. From the resulting corner the Victory again went close but the Oddies defence were just able to scramble the ball away.
As the game approached the midway point of the first half Oddies took the lead. A cross field ball from an Oddies player found a team-mate free at the far post. Nathan Hudson, the closest man to the ball, went out to close the player down but he simply slipped it to his colleague and he fired a shot under Rodgers and into the far corner of the net.
The Oddies lead did not last long though as around five minutes later and the away side were level. Smiles fed Chris Fisher on the right wing and he did really well to beat the left back with a good bit of skill. As he made his way into the area he looked up and pulled the ball back to Graham Lamb, who had made a good forward run, and Lamb rifled the ball first time past the keeper and into the back of the net.
With ten minutes of the first half remaining, the Victory were indebted to some excellent defending from Stephen Robson, who was forced to clear the ball off his own goal line twice in a matter of moments.
It was at this point that Chris Fisher began to struggle and he was forced to leave the pitch to be sick. Scott Hunter was sent to warm up and as Oddies prepared to take another corner the referee stopped play to allow the sub to be made. Confusion then ensued as Fisher wandered back onto the pitch and signalled he wanted to carry on. From the resulting corner, the Victory lost concentration and allowed an Oddies player to put his team back in front when he rose highest to nod home from close range.
Less than a minute before half time and Fisher decided that enough was enough and he trudged off with Hunter finally coming on in his place.
At the interval the Victory could consider themselves unfortunate to be behind but knew that improvements had to be made if they wanted to get anything out of this game.
The second half began disastrously for the Victory as with just four minutes of the second period on the watch, Oddies went two goals clear. The Victory cleared a corner back out to the corner taker and he delivered a cross into the box. As an Oddies player and Stephen Robson went to jump at the back post the Oddies attacker clearly shoved the Victory player as they were in mid air. With Robson out of the way, the Oddies player nodded the ball back across goal where it was scrambled in from virtually on the line by one of his team-mates.
The Victory responded to falling two behind by sending on Steve Jackson in place of Ben Stores.
With fifty five minutes on the watch, the Victory were handed an unexpected way back into the contest when the referee, Steven Hoggett, awarded them a soft penalty. A long ball forward saw Peter Harding run clear and as he prodded a shot goal wards, the keeper who was sliding out to smother the ball, cleaned Harding out but only after saving the ball. Players from both sides could scarcely believe their eyes as the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot. Up stepped captain, Greg Davison, and he duly dispatched the spot kick into the bottom right hand corner to register his first goal of the season and reduce his sides arrears to just a single goal.
Less than five minutes later and the comeback was complete as substitute Steve Jackson levelled proceedings at three all. A through ball from Smiles put Hunter clear down the right. He scampered clear and put in an excellent low cross with his right foot which found Lamb. Once again Lamb’s shot was well hit but this time it was straight at the keeper. Thankfully for the Victory though the keeper could only parry the ball out to Jackson who made no mistake in tapping the loose ball into the empty net to level the scores.
The scores did not remain level for long however, as Oddies clearly stung by throwing away a two goal lead started to attack with more positive intent. A long ball forward found an Oddies player, who was at least five yards offside. Incredibly, the referee allowed play to continue and the Oddies player, who must have hardly believed his luck, strode forward and crashed a shot past Rodgers at his near post. It was a real kick in the teeth for the Victory who had worked so hard to get back in the match only to see their efforts ruined by a terrible refereeing decision.
Worse followed with a quarter of an hour remaining as Oddies restored their two goal cushion when the Victory failed to clear a set piece and the loose ball was lashed into the back of the net from close range.
As the Victory sought to mount another comeback effort the formation was switched to 3-5-2, a move which had proved successful in the game against Jollies a week ago.
This time though the move only succeeded in making the fragile Victory backline even more exposed. Oddies killed off any faint hopes of a late Victory revival by going 6-3 ahead with eleven minutes remaining. An Oddies attacker got in down the left and after skipping past attempted challenges from Hudson and Davison, scuffed a right footed shot past Rodgers.
In the final couple of minutes, Oddies rubbed further salt into the Victory’s wounds when they added a seventh goal. A long ball out of defence saw an Oddies forward run clear and he cleverly chipped the ball over Rodgers as he went to ground and into the back of the net.
Moments later and the referee blew his whistle to bring an end to proceedings in what had been a game of fluctuating emotions for both sides.
No question that the final 7-3 scoreline flattered the Victory’s opponents but at the end of the day no matter what the score it was another loss for the men in green. The Victory can take heart from their comeback from 3-1 down to level things at 3-3 but will then be disappointed with the way they folded in the last twenty five minutes to hand Oddies an ultimately comfortable looking win. Next week sees the Victory return to cup action with a game against promising Division Three side, Silksworth Fleece. With a big squad to choose from it would be very surprising if Rodgers and White did not decide to shuffle their pack for that one.
