Another week when we were playing the league leaders and as expected, this proved to be a tough game against a physical but very capable footballing side. Luckily we had a strong squad available and chose to have one of our very good days.
First and foremost on the small pitch at Rusthall you need to be very solid defensively and the clean sheet bears testament to how well we defended with Andy Lindsey and Stuart Hunter outstanding. Also though, particularly in the second half, we played some good football going forward and regularly got behind their back four again no mean feat on such a tight pitch.
The first half was pretty even with both sides having opportunities. Ours though were the more clear cut and we were marginally disappointed to turn round level.
At the break we emphasised the need to withstand the physical approach, not to give away cheap possession and to try and get at their back four a bit more. To everyone’s credit that we did and we proceeded to dominate the second half. We opened the scoring three minutes into the half when a long ball found Dave Burren on the edge on their box. Dave held the ball up well and after a couple of turns created enough space to place the ball over their keeper and into the top right hand corner. Despite having the better of possession thereafter, we didn’t effectively finish the game off until the seventy fifth minute when the two substitutes Peter Bukovec and Steve Harper linked up well down our right and the ball across the goal was finished off by Alun Evans sliding it home.
All in all, a pleasing day with a very efficient performance and the perfect result. We now need to take this into December where some tough but winnable games await. Next week we face Invicta who are not having a great time this season but who we know will be up for it against us.
Team:
L.Baker
M.Wood
S.Hunter
A.Lindsey
I.Ward
L.Gent
G.Manser
M.Lester
D.McGahan
A.Evans
D.Burren
Subs:
P.Bukovec (for Ward)
S.Harper (for Burren)
M.Millins (d.n.p)