This Saturday we travelled to Leigh with a few absentees but a very strong squad none the less.
With Kevin missing from the centre of Midfield we had a large hole in our side to fill, fortunately slightly overweight centre midfielders are easy to come by at pembury so we had Benny Turner making his come back from injury to fill the void.
We lined up 4-5-1 as it had proved to be very prosperous the previous 2 Saturdays.
We started very brightly and with only a few minutes gone Iggy Crouch managed to be hauled down in the area and a penalty was rightly awarded and clinically finished by Matty Rice-Tucker, this however seemed to make us think we were in for an easy ride and we slacked off, this invited them on and after withstanding some pressure we conceded quite a soft goal from a corner with their big striker towering above everyone to head home. From then on it was end to end without either team creating anything clear cut, Dominic was called to make a good stop though towards the end of the half as their striker had decent long range effort.
At half time we were told to not be so crap second half, not the most positive of team talks but the point was made and we all had to agree that it had been pretty poor first half.
With that fresh in our minds we stepped up a gear in the second half and we started to create the better of the chances, and within about 10 minutes from the restart a Fantastic free kick from Gary Knight was cooley headed in by Matt Rice-Tucker for his second and therefore started a pursuit of his hatrick.
Being a goal up lifted us and it was not too long before we made it 3-1 when some good work by Yas resulted in Richie slotting the ball past the keeper. From then on Matty was on a one man mission to get this elusive third goal and it nearly came on about 3 separate occasions, notably a good long range effort that struck the bar and another which he scuffered against a defenders leg and it hit the post.
Alex Donaldson was also guilty of missing the best chance of the game when a spillage from the goalkeeper left him with a free shot at goal but he managed to pick out a a Short bald guy who had run about 20yards to head it off the line and shortly afterwards he was replaced by Christian.
With 10 minutes to go Benny's knee had just about had enough so Andy Wittaker a run out upfront, and despite his initial "I don't want to Play" routine he soon got to grips with the game and even ran up the wing screaming for the ball and gesturing for Matty to play the ball through for him to run on to it, did he actually think he would make it? did he think the ball was pie? Who knows, all I know is its that sort of commitment which is needed on Saturdays.
We eventually ran the game out as 3-1 winners, and although it was not the greatest of performances it was the win we needed so there was no complaints. I feel aswell that I need to mention a good performance at right back from Strawbs as he made some fantastic forward runs through out the game and also Dominic in goal made some really good saves and without him it could have been a very different scoreline.
All in all the result was the main thing and we got the win and regardless of the result on Tuesday, we can be very pleased with how we finished the Season.
by Lewis Drury
Team:
D.Lanaway
G.Knight
L.Drury
N.Edwards
G.Hughes
R.Fothergill
A.Donaldson
I.Crouch
B.Turner
M.Rice-Tucker
Y.Marouani
Subs:
C.White
A.Wittaker