Cranbrook 3 v 5 Pembury Sunday Reserves
Sunday saw the beginning of our league campaign with a difficult away trip to play Cranbrook at Benenden. Having been newly promoted we didn’t know the strength of this division and with Cranbrook having finished fourth last season we knew that this would be a good indicator of what this season may hold.
We didn’t start too well and fell behind to a sloppy goal in the second minute and were under pressure for a short while thereafter from a very quick forward line. We eventually managed to play ourselves into the game and equalised on twelve minutes when a near post corner was flicked home by Olly Bryant. In possession we were looking comfortable but the Cranbrook forwards were still causing us problems whenever they got in behind us and Matt Bolton in goal was forced off his line to save at the feet of their forwards on too many occasions. It was perhaps no surprise when on thirty eight minutes another through ball was this time finished off and we again fell behind. Not to be deterred we continued to play our football and equalised just before the break when Grant Allen curled a free kick from twenty five yards out into the top corner.
The half time break enabled us to talk about the problems whilst emphasising that it wouldn’t take much for us to up our game and win the match. We had had the benefit of some good pre-season training and four friendlies and with the benefit of a good bench we knew that we would remain strong. Unfortunately they scored within a few minutes of the restart with a shot from twenty five yards in to the bottom corner that I felt Matt could have done better with, although it was his only mistake in an otherwise excellent performance. To the teams credit the heads didn’t drop and we were level again within four minutes when Matt Rice-Tucker was fed the ball in the box and calmly placed the ball wide of their keeper. From this point we proceeded to dominate and the introduction of the lively Kevin Smith and the pace of Tom Lowe at full back strengthened us going forward and defensively. We were now stretching their back four and Kevin got in behind them on sixty two minutes to finish well and put us in front for the first time. In the seventy seventh minute we sealed the game when Robert Curd who for him had had a relatively quiet game suddenly came to life cutting in from the left and firing a great shot into the top corner from twenty yards. Nick Forward was then introduced and showed good promise in breaking up the play and added some fresh legs in the middle to close the game out.
All in all a pleasing result against a good Cranbrook team who if they keep that side for the remainder of the season will cause sides problems. For us we showed good character in coming back from behind three times and the depth of our squad looks much better this season with three substitutes all good enough to have started, a couple of players unavailable due to being back late from international duty and several new youngsters waiting in the wings to get their chance. On the strength of Sunday we will compete well in the division, we showed that we will be strong going forward, have good character but have a few issues defensively to tidy up. If we can maintain the positives and improve on the negatives then another good season is in store.
Team:
M.Bolton
S.Balcombe
M.Jermin
O.Bryant
J.Campbell
P.Poliski
S.Bent
G.Allen
R.Curd
M.Rice-Tucker
J.Roxborough
Subs:
K.Smith (for Jermin)
T.Lowe (for Bryant)
N.Forward (for Allen)
