With the game changed to an evening kick off & plenty of players away for the long weekend & even more eager to get down the pub & watch the Ryder Cup, USA,USA……Not

this was always going to be a challenging game against a team full of confidence & unbeaten.

We start with Bagpuss Bertie in goal, a back line of Andy B, Jay G, a welcome back to HK of Mike V & Olivier slotting in on the left.

Midfield of Rory & Mehdi on the wings, with Daddy Mike & Jimmy R in the middle, & a strike force of Macca & Andy H , giving the job to create & get the goals.
We start off strong, winning all the challenges & pushing Corinthians back & testing there defence from the off, with Macca & Rory starting to terrorise there back four with some strong powerful runs & great movement, it didn’t take long before Andy H, bought a ball down perfectly & placed a deft pass through to Macca to beat the off side trap, who rounds the keeper with ease & calmly slots us into the lead early doors.

This goal gives us the confidence to start playing some nice passing football, down the left Rory & Olivier are working well, Andy & Macca are causing havoc up front, while Jimmy & Mike in the middle are keeping everything solid & ticking over, while Mike V, Jay & Andy are keeping for the most, their strike force pretty quiet, don’t think they had a shot on target all half.

We continue to express ourselves & create more chances, which going forward we need to be more clinical with our finishing.

We are awarded a free kick around the half way line, that Jay steps up to take & float it into the box, where the defence & Goalkeeper all go for the ball, leaving Mehdi to cleverly head over into an empty net, two up & looking good we continue to press until half time.

Much of the same is asked for in the second half & another goal would finally kill off any chance corinthians have of getting back into the game, we start off again well with some nice build up play & start to get back into our rhythm, but this half Corinthians understandably have to push to try to compete, our back four are up to any challenge put in front of them & together with the ever present threat of hitting them on the break, we still look comfortable,

A couple of changes with Jimmy coming off, who had returned to play his first game in months, was outstanding controlling the middle & playing simple balls to start attacks & putting in when attacks from the opposition needed to be stopped, with Jake fitting in on the left, while Mehdi slotted into the middle to assist Mike K & Henry coming on for Andy H, who was outstanding with his hold up play & touch to set up the goal, we went into a 4.1.4.1 formation to shut up shop until the end of the game, that was the plan anyway.

Corinthians started to create a few chances, one especially good shot which was going in made Bertie make an excellent stop to his left pushing the ball onto the post, this was a warning shot & we upped our game & defended well from Macca who worked tirelessly tracking back, helping out & making the midfield & defences’ job so much easier, we kept them out & got our second clean sheet of the campaign.

I was pleased with the battling qualities in the second half & impressed the way we pushed forward & passed in the first half, with at times exemplary build up play & with a slightly better execution we could of scored more.

We need to keep the motivation & confidence going forward this weekend & try to force our style of football on our opponents for a longer period of time, if we can do that, there is only one winner.

On another note may I congratulate Our Midfield dynamo & new Daddy Knowlesy, who apparently was no where near the birth of baby Jessica,

Well done to Jasmine & by the size of baby Jessica, looks like we have another new addition to the Spartans academy in the near future.

Fantasy Points:
Clean sheet
Assists: Andy H, Jay G
Goals: Macca, Mehdi