Goals: Aidan, Joe
The first humid and hot day for the new year saw us battle Young Guns on a pretty small and average pitch surface at the Valley. As usual kick-off came and a few late comers meant the team was reshuffled at the start.
The Starting lineup included the late inclusion of Thomas “The Bear” Ma in goals, Nick “70’s story” Briggs and “Father to be” Bertie in central defence, Jay “The butcher” Gresko and Leandro “Don’t mess with me” Mackie. In centre mid we had Mike “Korean” Marriott and Aidan “Peace maker” Jones, while out wide on the right was Scottie “Boy band” Wilkins and Steph “Fired Up” Kelly. While up front we had Bruno “Crouchy” and Keith “Defoe” providing our spurs like attack which Sanj was applauding from the sidelines.
We started the first half well on a difficult pitch with Bruno firing a shot early doors. Several shots followed but none troubling their keeper. They had the closest chance early were there players was fouled just outside the box with claims that it was close to penalty, thankfully it was award just outside. A nice cross from Steph on the left saw Keith tried an ambition overhead scissors kick. Keith had another shot which their keeper saved well, however it was Aidan who broke the deadlock with a fine strike outside the box leaving the keeper no chance. 1 nil up.
Young Guns did have chances and a good strike look goal bound just before half time saw Tommy Ma pull off a great save.
Half time and one nil up and some team changes. Rob “Iceman” Dickson and Joey “Early bird” McEgan joined the attack in the centre while the nomads Randy’s and Dan’s first appearance in a few months made our right side. Hao “weightlifter” Tsang chumping on the bit to come on!!!
The second half saw us dominate further, Joey getting us a early penalty which he took and scored. We continued to press on but couldn’t get a third goal, with many players having good chances to score. Certainly Joe could have easily scored a hat trick with his missed header and last minute smash over the bar from 6 yards out. Hao came on however couldn’t materailze any of that magic from another era needed to get us a third goal. In the end the game trickled away for 2-0 win.
Sound result but nothing too spectacular. Solid games by everyone with Thomas Ma returning back to fine form, Marriott, Scottie, Jay, Keith and Leandro have good games and giving us a good platform to work on. Joey played well when he came on while Rob got into the game progressively however MOM was very clear he won every ball in the middle of the park and scored a fantastic goal…..none other than Aidan.
