SUN 9 APRIL 06
HIGHRIDGE 1
FRY CLUB COLTS 2
Following
last weeks bitter disappointment, with 2 games to go the boys were in
determined mood to end the season on a high by finishing 3rd. James Hurrell Smith was unavailable for this match but as usual
we still had a very strong squad of 13 to choose from.
Boults and I
decided on a change in line up to 4-3-3 as we felt this would help our attack
options. This was soon evident as the midfield trio of Oli
Randall, Nathan Dawson and James Parsons were involved in a lot of ball play
which opened up the Highridge defence for Brad Monelle, Craig Andrews and Kyle Curtis to dominate most of
our attacks. In defence, we were rarely troubled as Highridge
spent a lot of time defending. The breakthrough came after 18 minutes following
a great movement from Brad Monelle who was fouled in
the box and James Boulton stepped up and coolly
slotted home the penalty to put us deservedly 1-0 up. Despite our pressure
though, we just couldn’t get a second which we felt we needed whilst on top.
We
discussed at half time that Highridge would get a
chance in the game and that chance yet again came from a corner to level the scores
just after the break. However, this was the only chance they had as both James Boulton and Michael Payne were playing superbly well,
supported also by the full backs Danny McCarthy and Jordan Knight. The pressure
was soon to pay off as a great left wing run by Kyle Curtis crossed the ball
into the box via Brad Monelle and Craig Andrews fired
the ball into the back of the net spectacularly via the crossbar. Soon after a
super 30 yard strike by Brad again hit the underside of the bar but this time
the ball somehow stayed out. The result from this point never seemed in doubt,
perhaps only the winning margin was a little disappointing as we really
deserved more goals.
A great response from the team and if this formation proves successful it gives us a different game plan to use for next season.
In a
game where everybody really did play well, there were several players voted by
the parents for Man of the Match. However, it was just won by Kyle Curtis for
such a good left wing display in attack.
SQUAD: Craig Francis, Danny McCarthy, Jordan
Knight, Mo Bouaziz, Dean Lapham,
Kyle Curtis, Oli Randall (Capt), Bradley Monelle, Craig
Andrews, James Parsons, Michael Payne, Nathan Dawson, James Boulton