Goals – Fabb (yes, FABB!), Manu, Harvey, Nicholas
I will spare you the consternation and ire in this match report, mainly because we had 11 players who did an amazing job and played some cracking football. We went to Finchleians with the bare XI, with skipper Macca (nursing 2 broken ribs) as an emergency sub. Tom Spencer volunteered to bite the bullet and play centre back, Ben Carter played in centre midfield and Harry Wilson Skippered. As there were no changing rooms available at OF’s, we changed behind a tree. Taking it back to the old school then. The surface we found was excellent, which was conducive to our excellent football. We were able to play the ball out at the back, through the midfield and up to the strikers. We took the lead when Ozan won a ball and slipped it through to Fabb who ran through and curled in a beauty.
At times we paid the price for our toal football style – the equalizer came when we gave the ball away in our own half, the winger zinged in a great ball and a good finish giving MOD no chance. 1-1. We kept playing our football though and soon scored a late goal of the season contender. I can’t remember the exact personal or how many passes, but Dan and Les built down the right, interchanging with Louie and Ozan who slipped Les through to finish into the bottom corner. Total Football. However, yet again we over played the ball in midfield, resulting in a ballooned ball into the box that the unfortunate Tom to deflect past MOD. 2-2 at half time.
We spoke about maintaining the football and getting our ‘ballers’ in possession whenever possible. There was a strong feeling that we were the better team and that it would be cheap to not win against an extremely one dimensional ‘launch it to the big man’ team.
The second half had a similar rhythm to the first – we played great football but OF’s were never out of it. It took a real piece of determined and tenacious play by Karnell to move us back out in front – Karn outmuscled 3 OF’s to fire into the bottom corner. Goal number 4 came soon after when Louie pounced on a mix up to coolly slot home from 25 yards. We had more chances after, with the front 4 completely tormenting OF’s throughout.
So all in all a good result and a strong performance. We can potentially finish in the top 4, and a strong end to the season is imperative if we have any designs on promtotion to the top flight next term.
MOTM – Tom Spencer – despite the OG, was a rock at the back, and took one for the team by volunteering to go there.
Team: O’Donnell, Fabb, Spencer, Jeator, Wilding, Manu, Wilson, Carter, Harvey, Nicholas, Gunes.
