A perfect day for football with there being little or no wind, the sun beaming across the pitch and with the anticipation of a great Super Sunday ahead this game set the bar.
We started off in our standard 4-4-2 shape with the Day brothers leading the line and the return of Craig “Diadora” Doran and James Hilton at CB and RB respectively. We started off better than we had done in the past 2 games, with Tommy Richards providing energy in the middle of the park and looking to get moving forwards at every available opportunity. We kept possession with Rikki and Jonny both linking well with Tommy in the middle but there seemed no cutting edge to our play. Our most potent attacks came from the right hand side; Richard Harding having dipped his right foot in liquid gold before the game was whipping in some delicious crosses but their two centre backs seemed to clear these easily without much pressure being put on them. Again we were undone by the classy long ball game, a clearance from the back managed to find it’s way to their centre forward and after a couple of lucky bounces he found the space to get a shot off which caught an unfortunate deflection after Murray was going the right way to creep across the line into the far corner.
Heads didn’t drop as everyone knew they hadn’t deserved this and after the ball broke out to the right from Webb’s over-hit corner, Harding whipped in a dangerous cross which Dave Webb glanced a dipping header off his bald patch for the far corner onto the bar.
Just deserts came 5 minutes later where good work from Ross Prentice set the ball for Harding to cross again, this time the ability of their centre backs couldn’t deal with the bounce as the ball made its way to the far post and with one touch to his left to set himself Dave Webb rolled the ball across the goalkeeper in the far corner. Confidence up we started to play some more football along the ground, with the time a space at the back Ender and Doran had time to pick their passes to Hilton and Harding allowing us to play out.
As Jonny and Rikki were both dropping deep the midfield became congested, we were unable to fashion any more clear cut chances, and from this with no pressure on their centre backs a long ball from them eluded our defence and bounced through for their grey haired (silver fox?) striker to finish first time across Murray into the far corner.
Half time came and with Hilton carrying a knock Matt Welch came on up top. With Ross and Tommy moving out left and right, Webb dropping into left back and Rikki returning to his more natural position of centre midfield we had a reshaped side for the second half.
These changes made a huge difference; we came flying out of the blocks. The extra pace Tommy added down the wing and the threat of Matt Welch making runs in behind their defence gave a new dimension to our game; this created more space for Rikki to start pulling the strings from the centre of the park. AC Malone’s legs started to tire in the middle and with Rikki finding the space to create a couple of guilt edge chances for Jonny he duly fire wide which on another would’ve scored; Torres take note. Tommy was busy giving their left back the run around and after good support play from Harding, another clipped cross found Ross striding into the box unmarked but unfortunately his first time finish was rifled over the bar.
The equaliser came from Vincenzo cutting out a poor pass from the opposition and a simple ball finding Harding again on the right with time and acres of space. His whipped cross to the back post was knocked down by Joe Wright who had out muscled their two defenders to win the ball, into the path of Jonny who side footed his finish to wrong foot the keeper and nestle into the corner.
AC Malone’s only threat was from the long ball counter attack, and with our width and dominance a long ball caught Webb out of position and with some last ditch defending from Ender they forced a corner. This being their first attack of the half we were caught asleep marking from the corner as their silver fox stole in at back post unmarked to score what must’ve been the easiest of headers from 4 yards out.
After a bit of finger pointing a shouting we were back on top, but just lacking that final bit of quality to finish off numerous good moves. Dominating and out of shape again a long clearance found their forward and with the pace of Usain Bolt took on and went past Craig Doran to finish low and hard into the bottom right hand corner of Murrays goal. Unjust is not the word. Within a minute we’d pulled one back Jonny Day was given too much time a space a delivered a ball that eluded their whole defence to find Matt Welch at the far post got his toe to guide the ball past the flailing keeper. Game on; 15 minutes left. Having been peppering their goal with shot after shot we were forcing a fair few corners, Webb had been over hitting these all day but he finally got one right and cometh the man cometh the hour, Craig Doran raised like a salmon above everyone and buried an unstoppable header beyond the keeper and leave Nick Hilton’s wallet £20 lighter. We could smell a winner, AC Malone’s players were all out of gas and it was only a matter of time, but was there enough to prevent extra time; of course there was. A weaving run from the right hand side from Jonny Day got him to the edge of the area, was he going to pass it? Was he bollocks. A cool calm and collected (left footed) finish from the edge of the box into the keepers near post sealed the victory at the end; shame about his celebration, poor keeping in my opinion.
Overall a thoroughly deserved win that should’ve been more emphatic, a bit of composure in the final third and we’ll be burying teams like Tottenham did to Liverpool. Well done to Matt “quiet word in the ear” Gendle at half time and a massive congrats to Murray for not being lobbed. Another performance like that next week please.
