Coming off a superb performance for Soho Spartans at the weekend we turn up at Kowloon Tsai small pitch for a Nites fixture against Medi Plus.
We have drawn with them before and we notice that they may have a few players missing and not many subs. Instructions are the close down quickly,
protect the keeper and express ourselves when we have the ball.
We start with a 4 – 4 – 2 line up of : Brian (G), Stef/Tony/Pablo/Scott (D), Ed/Henry/Miles/Matt (M), Pat/Cowley (F)
In similar fashion to the weekend we start extremely well which is very good to see and totally dominate proceedings early on. This has been a noticeable feature of
our game of late and being first to the ball and closing down early is fundamentally important. Matt starts like a man possessed (apparently it has something
to do with kick boxing) and makes some surging runs, crosses and takes a few corners. He also heads over from a Stef cross which is harshly called offside.
Ed also starts very well on the left wing and its his interplay with Stef who eventually picks out Matt to tap in from close range. It’s a brilliant move and is well
deserved after 10 minutes of being camped in their half. 1 – 0. Complacency does not set in and Soho smell blood. The feeding frenzy begins:
11 mins Scott does a cheeky run going past 2 or 3 of their strikers
12 mins Ed makes a mazy run and Matt shoots wide
14 mins after good work from Ed we get a corner taken by Stef which is overshot
15 mins Stef plays a great through ball and Scott does the same
16 mins Miles takes a free kick and Matt scores his second 2 – 0
17 mins Matt flicks on for Cowley who forces a save and we get another corner
18 mins Matt takes the resulting corner and Mansfield bundles in his 1st 3 – 0
19 mins They get their 1st shot which is very tame
20 mins Comedy moment sees Scott try and clear only to be blocked by Henry
21 mins Matt puts Mansfield in who shoots wide
22 mins Scott crosses for Matt who has a swipe which eventually falls to Miles who shoots wide
23 mins Miles has another shot which is saved
24 mins Stef shoots, its saved/\blocked and Mansfield heads in his second 4 – 0
25 mins Matt crosses and Miles shoots wide
26 mins Matt plays an excellent through ball to Cowley who scores but is offside
27 mins Matt, Mansfield and Miles combine for some silky football
28 mins Pablo makes a determined run from the back like a Bobby Moore but makes the mistake of passing it
29 mins Tony inspired by Pablo and not to be outdone takes a similar run but goes past 4 players and scores an amazing goal 5 – 0
30 mins Miles header finds Matt who shoots but is saved
31 mins Cowley makes a great run and slides in a pin point cross for Matt who brings out another save
32 mins Miles has a shot that is saved and Henry shoots wide from range
33 mins Stef entertains the crowd with some juggling on the far side which he is pleased about only for Tony to tell him he could only do it as there was no one marking him
34 mins Brian makes a good clearance and cheers go up that he is finally in the game
35 mins Cowley makes another surging run
An excellent performance loads of goal attempts, the ref gave lots of foul throws against the opposition so it looks like it could be our day at half time. Its tough for the gaffer to keep everyone motivated as it’s so one
sided and the subs feels like they may be going on after the "best man’s speech". We make the following initial changes : Chi and Andy on for Miles and Henry in midfield and Adam on for Cowley up front.
1 min Andy makes a brilliant surging run which sees him find Adam who’s shot is saved. We looked pumped
2 mins Adam heads wide
3 mins Mansfield has a header which is saved
4 mins Adam has a another shot which is saved
5 mins An excellent run from Matt on the far side sees a great cross finished off by our other winger Ed 6 – 0
6 mins Andy does some tricks and evades 2 – 3 of their players
8 mins Jeff comes on for Matt on the right wing and Dan comes on for Mansfield up front
10 mins Jeff wins a corner after some trickery and Pablo heads over
12 mins our determination is there to be seen as Jeff and Chi win some hard tackles to suffocate the opposition, Terry comes on for Stef
13 mins Dan and Chi combine and the ball runs free to Adam who turns and shoots but its saved
14 mins Adam plays a through ball to Ed who now joins the brace party and finishes well for his second 7 – 0
15 mins Adam shoots but is called offside
17 mins an interesting period period of play Dan heads over from a corner, Chi does a sublime outside of the foot cross and Terry lays one the opposition out after Pablo clears our lines
18 mins The resulting free kick is hit very well by them but Brian saves well and tips over the bar
19 mins James comes of for Ed at left wing… club policy states we do not allow hatricks!
19 mins Chi hits the post twice
20 mins Andy has another shot which is saved, this is carnage, are we going to reach double figures?
21 mins James gets into the action and has a shot saved
22 mins Dan makes it 8 – 0 after great work from a terry run and a Chi tackle
23 mins Scott makes a fantastic run from right back everyone demands a shot and he finishes well 9 – 0
25 mins Adam joins the party and finishes to make it 10 – 0
27 mins James flies down the wing cuts inside and then also drills in a shot 11 – 0
28 mins Andy makes a powerful run, stops to gather his thoughts and is then dumped to the floor. He steps up to take the free kick but to his horror terry has run 20 yards and wants the free kick
30 mins after hearing a barrage of abuse Terry gives the ball back to Andy. He looks at the ball takes one step and drills in the last of the dirty dozen 12 – 0
Thank goodness the ref blows up as the gaffer is exhausted keeping up with all the activity and is now exhausted having authored this report. What was pleasing was that we carried on the fight
and totally destroyed the opposition. There were lots of fantastic bits of play, good to average celebrations and good fun for everyone. There will be tougher games but we could have easily taken the
foot off the pedal. We didn’t and showed great energy in the second half. In total during the game we had 35 goal attempts!
SCORERS:
Matt 2, Ed 2, Mansfield 2, Tony, Dan, Scott, Adam, James, Andy
MAN OF THE MATCH NOMINATIONS
Stef, Brian and Scott
MAN OF THE MATCH
Matt… brilliant game could have scored 2 hatricks with a bit more luck
MUG OF THE DAY NOMINATIONS
Cowley for not scoring, Patrick for not knowing the time of the meet
MUG OF THE DAY
Terry…. for getting the opposition goal keeper’s contact details and looking at his photos, for running 20 yards to take a free kick that he was never going to be allowed to take and for streaking across our keeper’s goal line on 2 occasions
GUINNESS WORLD SMALLEST MAN
Congratulation to our player for the worlds smallest man award attached
