Goals; Reid, Valencia Gonzales
There was much moaning and groaning on Saturday ( Not from Will The” star”) as the first team embarked on an epic journey down to Hayes to play our third friendly, there was much talk of a certain fixture secretaries been taking to task for this long journey
Half an envious eye was cast northward as the reserves did battle with the old enemy at N21.
I don’t think some of our younger members have been out so far to play football and it certainly cost me money as they have never heard of topping up your oyster card! Anyway forward.
Once again we saw the 1st team travel to Division one opposition in the form of old Wilsonians.
If someone had said as was pointed out to me before the game, that we would get a draw I would be mightily happy.
A draw is what we got, although I thought certainly for the first half we were the better team creating lots of chances, and playing some exquisite football.
The game did start fairly even with both teams probing, 8 minutes into the game the AP team went to sleep at a corner and nearly conceding a soft goal, however 4 minutes later the team burst into life via a free kick from lee Carlin that the Old Wilsonians defence could not clear, Sly Cornibert passed the ball to Ozan Gunes who laid a neat ball into Shaun Reid whom with all the calmness of a surgeon, clinically passed the ball into the back of the net.
This signalled a dominate spell of football for AP who’s movement and passing was the best I have seen so far this pre season.
AP’s second goal came 35 minutes into the game. AP scored an outstanding goal in fact it was very similar to the goal Blackpool scored for those that saw it.
The move started from the back with the ball being played into the midfield to Janno, who with the speed of a lynx moved the ball on to Claude who touched it on to Ozan, whom shifted the ball onto Valencia, who then cheekily sold the keeper to score, capping off a fantastic move.
Wilsonians were in shell shock as you could hear the frustration coming from there players on and off the field.
AP went into the second half well deserving of there lead.
The second half proved a much harder affair with Wilsonians stepping up their game and applying more pressure up top.
AP lacked composer at times and started to panic a little on the ball, lack of concentration and ball retention lead to Wilsonians striking back to 2-1 then 10minutes from the end tiredness lead to their equaliser.
On the whole there are lots of pluses to take from the game, Ryan Court making his 1s début in goal pulling of a string of saves and showing a lot of maturity and confidence for a young player, Rob Soutar playing left back and considering he had not played for a while did very well and impressed, the return of the legend that is Shaun Reid, all are great boost to AP as a club and the first team.
The style and play the team conducted it self in the first and start of the second half was pleasing and encouraging.
We are now nearing the business end of the season and on a whole the team has performed extremely well, with one win and two draws against top opposition. I am looking forward to our last friendly against top opposition and ending our pre season with a win.
My man of the match is a close one again, I thought Ozan had an outstanding game working very hard for the team and was involved with both goals, Shaun was at the hub of most of the moves for a large part of the game and his influence was missed when he was eventually subbed.
On this occasion it goes to Shaun who capped off a fine game with a well taken goal.
Highlight for me was the second goal and Claude’s deft touch to Ozan.
Man of the match: Shaun Reid
Donkey of the day… Hmmm! Me for getting duped into paying the youngsters travel.
Team
Ryan Court, Peter Harrison, Lee Carling, Will Irvine, Rob Soutar, Ozan Gunes, Paul Jannece (Capt), Sylvester Cornibert, Leslie Manu, john Valencia Gonzales, Shaun Reid, Claude Mbelo,Nana.
BigBadBukus
