Goals: Pope, Parker, Spencer, Parsons
As he departed for a 2 week trip of on sun, sea and san miguel the skippers last words were ‘don’t worry lads, there won’t be a game on next week anyway’. Turns out what Oli meant was, actually we’ve got an interclub-derby, ‘away’ against the 7s who happen to be top of the league.
Despite the surprise el-classico, the 6s got a strong squad together, albeit a bit light in defence, but with plenty of options in attack. The plan was simple, run a lot, use the subs.
With youth on the 7s side, the 6s did well to set the pace early on, limiting their chances and with Terry and Jack providing a solid platform in the middle for John Parker to cause trouble between the lines and Robin, Ditmar and Harrison flying down the wings, we started to create decent openings of our own.
Despite chances the breakthrough came from a moment of divine intervention when Tris ‘the Pontiff’ Pope crot (cross come shot) from the right and the ball floated over the keepers head in to the far corner. We kept some shape and made it half-time 1-0 up.
After the break the 7s stepped up their game and the 6s defence saw their first real action of the match. Mike and James saw off every attack between them whilst Jamie’s main contribution was to play the 7s strikers onside whenever he got the chance. The defence were helped by the calming influence of Dan in net, returning to football after a long lay-off.
With the 7s pressure building, the moment of the game came. After some decent build up play, Daniel came up with a sublime turn and finish from the edge of the box to take it to 2-0. Pressure released, the 6s hit their stride.
The third and fourth goals were great team goals (aka tap-ins) from Jack and John, and sealed the win for the 6s. The midfield worked hard towards the end and the defence shouted a lot to give us our first clean sheet of the season to cap it all off.
Plenty of candidates for MoM this week and a tough call given John Parkers pace and dynamism in attack, but this weeks it goes to James R obinson for making the rest of the defence look good and seeming to pop up all over the pitch as an option in possession, which when playing on the right of a back three, was pretty impressive.
MoM: James Robinson
