SUN
4 NOV 07
BIRCHFIELD 2
FRY CLUB
COLTS 0
An away day to
Yeovil via
a minibus saw us take on a very strong team for the 1st round of the
cup. With James Boulton injured we had to re shuffle
but still fielded a balanced squad of 15 players on a really warm and sunny autumn
afternoon.
Birchfield
started the strongest, holding possession very well and drawing some good
tackles from our 2 full backs Michael Payne and Kyle Curtis. Pushing forward
when we had the ball, Brad Monelle found little room
to penetrate past their defence with 3 half shots
during the first half which the keeper comfortably dealt with. Brad did have a
good penalty shout early in the half pushing the ball past the last defender and
having his path blocked. However, the ref saw no infringement and played on,
much to our frustration. Mo Bouaziz also put quality
on his corners which gave the Birchfield defence a good test but our luck ran out on 20
mins.
A a ball put into the box couldn’t be cleared and a
shot on target found its way onto the foot of our defender and looped over
Craig Francis head into the top of the net. Worse was to come just short of
half time as losing the ball in their half of the pitch was punished with two
swift passes resulting in a glorious curling shot over Craig's
head into the top corner. In between all of this Craig’s handling and
distribution was very good but we had a lot of hard work ahead as we went into
half time 2-0 down.
A great response from the boys for the second half
saw a totally different performance as Oli Randall
and Danny McCarthy finally got hold of the Midfield and were able to impose
their skills on the game. James Hurrell Smith and
Scott Gregory were far more comfortable as we took the game to Birchfield. In fact
Birchfield
rarely troubled our goal. Craig's game in goal
continued to improve whilst up front Lewis Watt and Brad Monelle
toiled with the ball to create 2 golden chances which we just failed to take.
First a superb volley from Brad was hit too well as he blazed it just over the
bar and then a great run from Brad found the ball across to Mo Bouaziz whose shot just flashed wide of the goal. A direct
free kick from Brad near the end found its way through the wall but deflected
for a corner. All in all, a much better second half but one in which we just
couldn’t find a way through. In the end we conceded to a 2-0 defeat but against
probably one of the top teams in this competition, it was certainly no walk
over.
Aside from the privilege of playing against such a
good team, I think most of the lads equally enjoyed the post match shower
judging by the amount of soap suds and water that Tony Watt had to squeegee up!
Do you guys have showers at home??
James
Hurrell Smith, on
his return from a lengthy absence, played really well supported by some very
good tackling by Kyle Curtis. Today’s Man of the Match though was awarded to
keeper Craig Francis whose overall handling and performance was faultless.
SQUAD:
Craig Francis, Michael Payne, Danny
McCarthy, Mo Bouaziz, Oli
Randall(Capt), Kyle Curtis, Charlie Frampton, Scott Gregory, Ryan Gibbs, Lewis
Watt, Scott Palma, James Hurrell Smith, Brad Monelle, Jordan Knight, Nathan Dawson