Reports 23rd September 2006

Men's 1st XI are beaten 4-0 at Spalding II

Men's 2nd XI lose to Alford & District II 4-2

Men's 3rd XI defeat Ely City III 4-2

 

Spalding Men's II 4 - 0 Cambridge South Men's I

H/T: 1 - 0

Scorers:

South 1sts, sponsored by PwC, were given notice of the sort of levels they will need to play at if they want to be competitive in Division 3NW by a well-drilled Spalding team.

The hosts had got off to a flying start, opening the scoring within the first five minutes when their first short-corner routine deflected off a South defensive body, wrong footing keeper Jon Price. Though Jon did well to make an initial scrambling save, it only broke to a home forward, who was on hand to pop the loose ball home from close range.

South responded by quickly forcing a short of their own, and were agonisingly close to equalising. The ball was worked left to teenager Finn Johnson, on his first team debut, and Finn's sweet shot looked goalbound until a deflection off the tight of the home keeper sent the ball little more than a centimetre wide. Another close run thing came when a Rich Morgan sideline hit from the right was banged into Finn in central midfield. Finn slapped a first time through ball, which split the home defence but was unfortunately just too strong for Rupert Webb, through one-on-one on the home net, to reach.

The second half saw Spalding start strongly, forcing a short within 10 seconds, and they never let up. A decisive second was added on 50 minutes when a player was left unmarked on the penalty spot, and he lifted the ball over Jon. A deflating goal.

South kept pushing, with Lukas Snetler prominent for his hard work in midfield and Chris Graveling and Jim Thorpe going on some mazy forward runs. Amongst this, a chance was created for Jack Chalk, with just the keeper to beat. Unfortunately Jack aimed his shot for the near post, and dragged it just wide. A goal didn’t look likely.

Pushing up had left us exposed at the back, and it was Jon who was finding himself the busier of the two goalkeepers. Even so, Spalding's third and fourth goals were partly the result of shooting ourselves in the foot, as sloppy passing between defenders saw balls being stolen and attackers through outnumbering defenders.

Captain Chris Baker's post-match chat was concerned about both the fitness of his team after they were overrun in the second half, and working together as a team in training to get structures right. Most of important of these may prove to be fitness, especially in view of the goals leaked near the end on Saturday, which could be ascribed to tired muscles leading to fatigued decision making. 3NW is clearly a substantially faster, tougher league than the division below, and merely relying on training on Tuesdays and matches on Saturdays is not going to see players fit enough to cope with its demands…

Team played; Jon Price, Chris Graveling, Rich Morgan, Jim Thorpe, John Benedikz, Rupert Webb, Chris Baker (c), Lukas Snetler, Kevin Rowland, Jack Chalk, Finn Johnson, Jan Brynjolffssen, Gareth Peat

 

Cambridge South Men's II 2 - 4 Alford & District Men's II

H/T: 1 - 3

Scorers: Rob Garrett, John Greaves
MoM: Lino Di Lorenzo - for bravery in the face of the enemy, and being unlucky when his great saves rebounded to opponents

Cambridge South 2nds, sponsored by PwC, took an early lead when Rob Garrett, straight off the plane from China, shimmied round the Alford keeper after a solo run to score. Alford equalised soon after as a high shot from a short corner, saved spectacularly by Leo Tomita on the line, only found an Alford forward who gratefully slipped the ball in to the net.

Alford went ahead as an unmarked striker lifted the ball deftly over the keeper. This was with run of play as Alford were providing a lesson in making the ball do the work on a hot day and keeping possession through great interpassing. Alford went further ahead from a short corner as CSouth were a bit slow off the line and another excellent save from Man of the Match Lino Di Lorenzo only came to a lurking forward on the penalty spot. South had their share of corners, and got shots in, but the away keeper was too strong.

Tactical changes at half time by South worked well as the home team got back into the game and scored a textbook second goal as Andy Lewis released Stuart Creed in space on the right wing. Creed ran for the by-line and crossed to John Greaves who shot hard first time past the keeper.

This hope, and a much improved second half performance, came to nought and Alford grabbed a late fourth goal, again from a rebound, this time off the bar.

Not a good start to the league season, with another heavily reshaped team, against a good Alford team who were well drilled, young, fit, skilful…and sickeningly nice blokes too.

 

Ely City Men's III 2 - 4 Cambridge South Men's III

H/T: 2 - 1

Scorers: Russell Johnson, Simon Ta (2), James Cobbe
MoM: Simon Ta

South arrived at the Ely ground with exactly eleven players (mostly called James), one referee, ten pairs of shorts and no whistle. Despite protestations from the team, captain Neil refused a kind offer from one of the ladies playing on the field beforehand to slip into her skirt (!) and instead opted to play in tracksuit bottoms.

Both teams have a little history from last year, but as it turned out the game was generally good tempered. A marking mistake early in the first half saw Ely with a man over in the D. Close on goal, Ian had no chance and it was 1-0 to the home team.

Twenty-five minutes later they struck again. This time a back and forth period inside the South quarter saw men unmarked. One Ely player, close to the back line pulled of an extremely good shot in space to make it 2-0.

A lesser team than South might have dropped their heads at this point. As the half wore on, however, there were a few moments of inspiration. Good linkups down the centre and right featuring Simon, Russell, Wilco and some Jameses saw a number of probes into the Ely defence, which struggled against our speed. Eventually the pressure paid off. A strong corner from the left reached Wilco in the D, who pulled the ball across the mouth of the goal to leave an unmarked Russell to put it away. The half ended.

With the goal behind them, South took the half-time break to make a few changes to the team. Michael switched from left mid to right mid. Simon advanced from right back to forward. James R dropped from forward to left mid. Russell dropped from right mid to right back. A thoroughly exerted James B switched with a fresh and unperspiring Matt.

Thanks to the half time gee-up talk, South came out hard in the second half. Barely a couple of minutes in, a high shot from Wilco was brought to the ground by a defender only to be swept into the goal by the ever ready Simon.

From this point on, Ely's heads dropped and they took on a much more defensive strategy. It didn't do them any good. Most of the half was spent in their half of the field, with numerous excellent crosses, link ups, and flowing play from South. The pressure told in the end. An excellent free hit outside the D flew into the air off of James C's stick to be saved by the keeper. Simon was again on hand to put the ball into the back of the net. The final goal came during a period of relentless pressure, which saw James C free on the edge of the D with the ball; one killer shot later and the final score of 4-2 was reached.

After a shaky start South pulled it out of the bag and came out of the game looking by far the stronger team. With one more friendly before the start of the league season, the 3rds may be on for a good run.

Team played: Ian Evans, Matt Kern, James Lee, Neil Sneade (c), Simon Ta , Michael Woolley, Wilco Dijkstra, James Bridge, Russell Johnson, James Raikes, James Cobbe