Following Tuesday night’s 2nd half comeback we approached this match fully expecting to take all three points.
On a small and bumpy Bayham Road pitch we won the toss and decided to kick uphill in the 1st half. We started well and had the lion’s share of possession in the opening 10 minutes, however it was Hawkenbury who came closest to opening the scoring. A midfield runner was not tracked and only a fine save from Lee prevented us going behind. Another piece of sloppy defending presented the Hawkenbury centre forward with an open goal, but he put his shot over the bar. After this we defended very well as a team and were starting to move the ball well from one side of the pitch to the other. A snap shot from Lewis Drury smashed against the bar. Yes I did report that it was Lewis! The breakthrough came from a long throw-in, which Iggy Crouch met inside the 6 yard box. The keeper was ready to collect Iggy’s tame header until it hit a divot and shot off at a right angle to creep into the net. Further good work from a lively Lewis saw him use his manly frame to shoulder barge the defender out of the way, before shooting wide when Mark was better positioned in the middle.
The second half started well with us going two up early on. More good work from Lewis saw him nip in to score when goalkeeper and defender hesitated. It was now a matter of when we scored a 3rd and closed out the game. We were easily dealing with Hawkenbury’s counter-attacks and continuing to get into excellent attacking positions. Unfortunately either our final ball let us down or our finishing. The 3rd goal came with about 10 minutes to go when Lewis was tripped in the box. Garry stepped up to smash the resultant penalty home.
An emphatic win which should give us confidence when approaching this weekend’s semi-final against a useful Rusthall 3rds.
Team:
L.Thomson
L.Hattle
G.Knight
T.Bowyer
S.Lindsey
M.Rice-Tucker
K.Waterman
I.Crouch
J.Austin
L.Drury
M.Wyles
Subs:
S.Waterman
(for M.Rice-Tucker)