The Snakes played their final pre season match against King Cross Park, a match which manager Williams wanted to play like a usual League game and be shrewd with his substitutions...
With wannabee start striker 'Jamie Casey' absent and the next Red Bull Tyre Changer 'Ash Smethurst' AWOL, manager Williams had to make 2 late changes to the strating 11, giving Clissitt & the local lad Imrie a starting place.
Also, The Big Ginger Tap, was told by the referee prior to kick off for slurping a can of Stella that he wouldn't enter the field of play today, so he and the giant himself Henshaw took themselves off to their favourite place on Savile Park, The Lodge (aka Fish Shop)...
THFC started the better side but composure on the ball was lacking... after a good period of possession against the run of play, on 15 minutes a long throw into the box to the KX No 9, who our very own Coates was taking his name on the lad literally, managed to scoop a standing overhead kick over the out of position Snakes Keeper ‘Junior’ who could only fall to the floor to try and make it looks like he knew what he was going, 0-1...
A minute later, Stanton didn't agree with a decision by the debutant referee, who's vision was a bit blurred according to the young striker, who ended up only with a yellow card... He was also ordered to remove his girl's ear piercing and bracelet.
King X took the goal and confidence grew, there was a defensive line of a dogs hind leg for the Snakes which manager Williams noticed and changed from 3-5-2 to an attacking 4-3-3 putting Stefan up into the middle alongside young Martin & the senior figure of Hemblys which promoted Clissitt to play alongside Gibson & the roaming Stanton in a battle for the golden boot before the season has started... a change that worked well for Hall, on 29 minutes a corner floated to the back post saw Gibson rise like a salmon, with his header going well wide, he can thank the large frame of Captain Cartlidge to be 6 inches in front of him and claim the equalising goal off his shoulder, 1-1...
Hall kept the momentum up, a Stefan Freund sorry Drakes free kick from about 30 yards out, lofted into the mix and what looked at first like a bullet header from one of our striking duo Stanton or Gibson, turned out to be the OG of the season so far... 2-1 Snakes!
Hall held on till half time, going in 2-1 up...
With Williams taking this seriously he only made the one sub at half time, giving our other local lad Balika a chance at left back in place of his Imrie...
A positive start in the second half with a bit more passing play... Drakes was enjoying it in the middle of the park, although his body was a yard behind his mind, he knocked a ball over the top from inside his own half for the gangly striker Gibson to chase from 40 yards out and lob the keeper from just inside the area, great finish, 3-1... could this be the start of the golden boot for Gibson...
2 minutes later, Hall won the ball back, good play on the left side from Blaika & Clissitt, won them a corner... Clissitt fired this in o the back post, again Gibson was there with a bullet header, 4-1 to Hall, Gibson still beliveing it was a hat trick, but the Manor Heath Henshaw VAR had given the 1st goal to Cartlidge...
By now, Drakes had run himself into the ground, literally, collapsing in a heap on the halfway line, to be replaced by yet another local Australian Jesse Malseed. And 2 minutes later, the returning Luke Hand replaced Shep who had actually won a couple of challenges in the 65 minutes he was on...
Maybe a couple of bad decisions by Williams, 5 minutes later, a defensive mix up left the King X forward through 1 on 1 with our very own 'Junior', who didn't know whether to come out or not, he missed both man and ball, 4-2 it became...
This gave Cross a lift, putting the pressure on, Balika failed to clear the ball, well only to a Cross player, he then tried to redeem himself, instead of leaving Hemblys to win the ball back he managed to rugby tackle the oncoming player in the box, the referee for some reason gave Cross a penalty, which was cooly dispatched 4-3, game on!
79 minutes gone, manager Williams, now getting frustrated on the touch line, went against his game plan and started bringing the players back on he had taken off, Stefan returning for Hemblys who by his own words said he hadn't had his best game, too busy body guarding his sister for the past 2 weeks possibly... Also 5 minutes later, the young workhorse Regan Martin had no more energy in his legs and was replaced by Shephard.
It was going to be a frantic last few minutes, could Cross find an equaliser or could Hall finally kill them off once and for all... thankfully the latter occurred.... 87 minutes and linesman Needham gave the right decision on this occasion, and Hall had a throw in on the edge of the area... Clissitt fired this into a sparse 6 yard box with only an odd Hall player in position, great timing tho by Clissitt, as the Cross centre half decided to fling his gut at the ball only to direct it into the far corner beyond the keeper, 5-3, game, set, match...
A good result in the end, hopefully Hall can take this into the first league game at Woodhouse next Sunday 9th September...
