The 3s started 2012 with a trip to Harrow. Hoping to continue the undefeated league campaign.
With a strong squad a few new faces we all arrived in good time and I even arrived after Kurt. Well done El Capitan.
Michael started in goal with a back four of tom at right back, Fevzi left and with Jonesy and Will centre backs. Midfield started with Jed and Jason in the middle, Ashley left and Fraser on the right but hoping to cut back in to use his stronger foot. Adam started behind Kurt hoping to roam.
We didn’t start particularly well with Old Lyonians who were bottom of the league getting some encouragement that we should not have given them. Going downhill we had a little help from the wind but in the first ten that wasn’t helping. This was demonstrated with the first goal of the match which went against us.A free kick for the home team was lofted in and confusion amongst us resulted in Jonesy cleaing straight on to Jed’s knee. This rebound flew in the net for an own goal. Unlucky but very avoidable.
This fortunately kicked us up the bum and the next set of the play we took the game right to the opposition. Lots of attacking movement with Ashley, Adam and Kurt going close. Not being in the lead much this season their keeper was doing as much time wasting as possible even in the first half.
We did make the scores level after some good work from Kurt who twisted their defender all over until he conceded a penalty. Fair play to the captain who after his last miss and resulting injury scored from this one.
We continued the pressure with more shots and good movement from the 20 after their goal and we did really well. In this time it went from 0-1 to 3-1. Second coming from an Ashley shot which was deflected in by Kurt. Definitely Kurt’s goal but I am sure he didn’t mean to get in the way of Ashley’s shot. They did keep on worrying us due to some uncharacteristic defending and only a finger tip touch on to the cross bar from Michael stopped Old Lyonians scoring a second.
Second half against the bank and a little wind. We started better but the home teams head were clearly down. This despite calls of ‘WE ARE GOING TO WIN EVERY GAME THIS YEAR’
Tom was replaced by Will Irvine and Liam replacing Ashley through the half.
In all honesty I was more or less a spectator second half in the goal despite an injury only allowing me to use my left foot. In this time we didn’t play particularly well. I guess we have this characteristic of a team that need the other team to play well for us to do so.
The second half did bring two contenders for goal of the season and both very similar. First Adam curling a beauty with his left in to the top right corner and Fraser cutting in from the right and equalling Adam’s effort.
This was separated by a goal from Ashley pressuring the goalkeeper and defenders in a mistakes and slotting home.
6-1 was the final score and was comfortable but we can play much better. 9 games gone this season and only 9 conceded I for one will be more than happy if we keep that stat up with our scoring ability.
A word from the manager. Congratulations on a winning start to the year chaps, as usual it sounds like the spirit is spot on after the break. The crack we have on a Saturday shows this is more than a football team, which makes players go that extra yard because we do not want to let the “team” down. Lloyds this week so we need to raise the bar again and make sure we are firing on all cylinders. Let’s meet sharp have a chat, a joke and a good warm up then give them a pasting. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.
