The UNITS were comprehensively dumped out of the cup this morning by Division One high flyers Phoenix 6-2 at Areley Kings
With key players still injured and some players badly needing miles in the legs Cuzer shook things up a bit as we lined up with
Mala, Chinner, Lacey, Eggy, Barney, Ashton, Baker, Jim, Ross, Pountney and Taylor
The bench was Penna, Kirbs, Turner and Coco
The UNITS missed a glorious opportunity to take the lead on 5 minutes as Taylor was played in behind the static back line only to fire straight at the keeper from 18 yards out
However Phoenix quickly got on top and took the lead on 15 minutes when a long ball forward was cushioned down by their excellent front man Stourbridge Town's John Griffin before he ran onto the return pass to rifle into the top corner from 18 yards
This knocked the stuffing out of the UNITS and for the next 20 minutes we struggled to get anything going, we afforded Phoenix too much time and space and didn't do the basics well enough.
On 25 minutes it was 2-0 when some static defending allowed a cushioned header to be laid on a plate for the on-rushing forward to slam home
On 30 minutes we should have got back in the game when Ashton swung over a cross which Pountney headed wide from 8 yards out and then Chinner played in Taylor who had more time than he thought as he went for the lob when he could and should of advanced on the keeper
To rub salt in the wounds some more calamity defending on 40 minutes resulted in Lacey playing the ball against his own man and a low scuffed shot hitting Eggy before trickling past Mala as we came in 3-0 down at HT
Cuzer asked the guys to show a lot more in the 2nd half and show some pride in what they were doing, the big difference was in the two 18 yard boxes they defended a lot better than us and were far more clinical in taking their chances than us but we could certainly play a lot better than we were
We started the 2nd half better in fairness and were managing to get the ball down but on the hour mark a cross from the touchline caught the wind and sailed over Mala's head to give Phoenix their 4th
Shortly after Kirbs, Penna and Coco replaced Pountney, Jim and Chinner as we shuffled our formation
Finally we started to play better, after some good work from Coco Paul Taylor swiveled and fired inches over from 7 yards before Ashton did well to win the ball high up the pitch and release Ross who took a touch before beating the keeper from 16 yards to pull one back
Within 5 minutes it was 4-2 when after some slick interplay Coco was released one on one only to be denied by a fine last ditch challenge however the ball ran to Taylor who made no mistake from 10 yards to claw us back int the game with 15 minutes left
It was cruel on the UNITS when piling forward we were caught twice on the break in the last 5 minutes by the excellent Griffin again as his pace got him in behind us twice and he finished well to give Phoenix a slightly flattering final scoreline of 6-2
Overall though no complaints with the result, we didn't do ourselves justice today but this cup was never a priority and we return to more pressing league action next week against fast improving Cally, never an easy game
Man of the match went to Ashton who was the best of an average bunch on the day
