Goals; Sulemanji (3), Chvojka, McGahey, Horner
Arriving half an hour late for the meet at the club – I was met by half the team stood outside the clubhouse. The captain had been there since 11:30 (the meet time) and it was disconcerting that we had no keys and no sign of opposition. Referee Mark Carter showed up in the nick of time to save the day, “Can we get kicked off ASAP please Kevin, the 7s have a cup match on this pitch directly after?”.
“Can we just get changed, stick the nets up and oh wait for the opposition first please?”
After a brief warm up the captain called us in to talk about building on last weeks win. Let’s do the simple things right, play to feet when we can…at this point I was distracted by the opposition running out in what appeared to be several different kits (matching tops – well done lads!) and goalkeeping shorts so bad they’d make Gabor Kiraly wince.
Having won the toss we employed the same tactic as the week before. Keep it tight boys and we’ll press our advantage in the second half. From the off we set a good tempo, making challenges, passing it round and trying to set Chvojka off round the back of the defence. On one of these forays the Czech striker with the Andy Caroll (09) corn-rows hit a shot that the Bermuda short wearing keeper couldn’t handle – Sulemanji on hand to blast in from 5 yards out.
If that was a bright start things only improved when Howarth picked up the ball in midfield and floated a pass over the head of the last defender, running in from the right Sulemanji hit a well executed volley that the keeper got a hand to but could only push further into the top corner.
Broomfield’s chances were extremely limited – one ball over the top did put the striker through but Edelman stood tall and avoided getting lobbed – but they were competitive as Donnelly can attest to when their over exuberant skipper left him with a large lump above his right eye following a clash of heads. Sulemanji capped his amazing first half of when a speculative effort driven at goal hit a divot on the 5 yard line and bounced over his head – “that keeper is a clown” remarked a Broomfield striker and to be fair it was more of a belly flop than a save.
Kevin gave what will probably be his easiest half time team talk of the season – keep up the workrate, keep a clean sheet and we’ll win. He made two changes with McGoohan coming on for Donnelly in centre midfield and McGahey replacing D. Howarth up front.
The second half followed the pattern of the first, AP dominating and creating chances – Broomfield disorganised and arguing amongst themselves. Chvojka sprang into life to finish from within the box and was rewarded for putting us 4 nil up with being immediately substituted for Guenzi. McGahey finished in similar fashion before Horner added to his goal last week with a similar finish.
Between the fourth and fifth goal Broomfield really fell apart with the left back walking of the pitch and shouting “I’m not playing for you guys again, I’m not even a left back.” to which his unsympathetic teammate replied “we can tell.” The drama wasn’t quite finished though as the referee gave a very generous penalty to Broomfield against a handling offence from Hancox (that being he has hands) – the resulting penalty saved magnificently down to his left from Edelman, pushing into on to the post and preserving our first clean sheet of the season.
MoM: Sulemanji – a first half hat-trick.
Team: Edelman, Kralik, Taylor, McGlogan, Hancox, Horner, Sulemanji, Donnelly (McGoohan), K. Howarth (C), D. Howarth (McGahey), Chvojka (Guenzi)
