This began as one of those Sundays when you feared the worst - wet and windy, a stand in keeper behind half a new defence and playing a useful Invicta side that always give us problems. In the end though it proved to be a very good day with a determined performance, three points and another potential banana skin removed from the fixture list.
The difficult conditions were not conducive to good football, however both sides to their credit made light of these and moved the ball pretty well. The first half was fairly tight but with the elements in our favour we created the better chances although our finishing let us down. Defensively Galey was proving that he still had plenty to offer and new signing Ian Jones was forging a solid partnership with Lindo. The loss of Alun Evans relatively early allowed Woody to move into midfield and for Olly to return at left back and he too gave a very strong performance to remind us he wants to start.
At half time we were not overly disappointed that we had not gained an advantage, despite the wind being in our favour, as we thought that, provided we used the ball well, then the ball holding up in the wind may give us better opportunities to get behind their defence. We just needed to ensure that we cleared our lines effectively and finished the chances when they came. The introduction of Harps with half an hour remaining gave us some fresh legs and a renewed threat going forward and it was no surprise when he latched on to a through ball with twenty five minutes remaining and calmly finished pass the keeper. Ten minutes later a similar opportunity gave a similar result and the comfort of a two goal cushion. The last fifteen minutes was one way traffic and we had several opportunities to win by a big margin, however good goal keeping kept us at bay and we only managed to add one other when Harps fed in Woody who crashed a great shot into the top corner.
All in all a great result with good performances all round the park. Richard in goal, despite not really having too many shots to deal with, handled well and played safe on the high crosses when necessary. The back four were all very solid and handled the conditions and their forwards well. The midfield was very industrious and worked tirelessly. Up front Peter and Millsy led the line well and with Harps coming on we always knew that goals would follow. So another tricky fixture out of the way and we now need to follow this up with a win at Artois next week.
Team:
R.Sayell
J.Gale
M.Wood
I.Jones
A.Lindsey
M.Millins
M.Lester
G.Manser
L.Gent
A.Evans
P.Bukovec
Subs:
O.Allman (for Evans)
S.Harper (for Millins)
M.Lawrence