A competent display was enough to see us progress to the Senior Cup semi final at the expense of a hard working Insulators side. The team was forewarned that this was not the easy game that it appeared to be on paper and that if we were not fully committed and up for the challenge then this was a potential banana skin. Despite being a couple of players down, the lads responded well and seemed eager to make amends for the slip of the previous week.
We almost opened the scoring straight from the kick off when Alun Evans robbed the ball from an Insulators midfield player and fed in Dave Burren who appeared to be fouled in getting his shot away. Nevertheless we took the lead on fifteen minutes when Millsy whipped in a great corner that Dave met perfectly to head home. The remainder of the half saw us dominate without putting the finishing touches to some good moves particularly down our left where Ollie Allman was causing them lots of problems. Nick Coxon and Wardy were solid down the middle such that Insulators did not pose too many problems, however they were dangerous on the break particularly if we lost our shape or over committed when going forward.
The message at half time was to keep disciplined defensively, cut out silly errors and continue to attack from wide positions. We were very confident that if we did this then we would go on to win. The second goal was all important and Dave duly obliged shortly after the interval when we won the ball in midfield and from twenty five yards he chipped the keeper. To their credit Insulators kept going and made things difficult for us and were unlucky not to get a penalty with ten minutes remaining which could have made things tricky. Fortunately the referee thought otherwise and we made the game safe when Dave notched his hat trick heading home a fine cross by Ian Jones.
All in all a comfortable win that sees us reach the semi final and a tough tie at home to Kemsing. We should not be misled by the fact that they are in Division Two as they probably have different cup and league times evidenced by the fact that they have also reached the county cup semis. Still that will be a few weeks away and before then we have some league games to win starting with a return game against Insulators at Woodside next week. Insulators showed today that they are no pushover and a win is only guaranteed if we turn up in the right frame of mind and perform accordingly. Anything else will not be enough.
Finally it was nice to see Partridge and Coxon sober. Partridge was even able to get in a customary ‘A ha’ at the linesman’s apparent indiscretion. Hopefully Millsy will be over his menstrual problems by next week - he ‘wasn’t having it’ when the ball bounced funny and ‘wasn’t enjoying this so you might as well take me off’ when his marking was brought in to question by the skipper.
Team:
L.Baker
A.Lindsey
S.Hunter
N.Coxon
I.Ward
M.Millins
G.Manser
A.Chapman
O.Allman
A.Evans
D.Burren
Subs:
L.Gent (for Lindsey)
S.Harper (for Evans)
I.Jones (for Chapman)