We once again left it late in over coming a strong Simla side in difficult conditions at Woodside. Simla started the day in second place in the league one point ahead of us having played the same number games. We were both adrift of leaders Artois, by six and seven points respectively with only one game in hand, so a win was vital to us both if we were not to begin to fall further behind.
We started brightly and had a great chance after 10 minutes when Alun Evans crashed a shot against the post, the rebound falling to Martin Millins who saw his shot saved by the keeper. On 12 minutes their keeper handled a back pass and we were awarded the free kick a few yards out, unfortunately it was at too tight an angle and the wall was comfortably able to block the shot. Good awareness by Evans on 20 minutes, after he had broken free, saw him square to Danny McGahan whose effort was cleared off the line. We were left to rue the missed opportunities when Simla fortuitously took on the lead on 39 minutes when a shot from Cooper that was going wide took a wicked deflection off Nick Coxon and left the Chimp helpless.
At half time we stressed the need to remain positive, be patient and continue to attempt to get beyond their back three from wide positions. Manser and Lawrence had fought hard in the middle against their central three and we needed to make better use of possession when breaking forward. With 30 minutes left Dave Burren was introduced to the action to hold the ball up and allow the midfield to push on. This led to a period of pressure although Simla remained dangerous on the break. Coxon twice went close with headers, one hitting the bar and the other going straight to the keeper when anywhere else on target would have been in. When we were then denied a blatant penalty for handball from a corner we began to feel that maybe it wasn't to be our day. However, the introduction of Marc Wood and Barry Leete and a switch to a five man midfield with three at the back gave us some fresh impetus and our pressure finally told on 83 minutes. Leete picked up the ball centrally, advanced into the hole in front of him and hit a shot from some 20 yards out that beat the keeper but crashed against the bar. Woody running into the box made a hash of the follow up but fortunately the ball broke to Evans who made no mistake in drilling it home. Within a minute we were in front. Having won the ball back from the restart we won a corner and as the ball came in Matt Lawrence was pushed right in front of the referee who had no hesitation in awarding the penalty. Cool Hand Ward, who now wishes for a goal scoring chart to be issued, despatched his fifth penalty of the season high into net. Evans had a great opportunity to seal the game with time running out but this time his finishing deserted him. Nevertheless, we hung on for a vital win and with Artois losing to Gardners the league is once again very open and a strong December will see us in a very good position going in to the new year.
Team:
L.Baker
A.Lindsey
M. Boorman
N.Coxon
I.Ward
L.Gent
M.Lawrence
G. Manser
D.McGahan
M. Millins
A.Evans
Subs:
D.Burren (for Gent)
M.Wood (for Millins)
B.Leete (for Boorman)
J.Gale