A warm welcome to the Home of Bexley Athletic and the first match review. Today’s game saw Bexley face tough opposition in Clifton at St Georges Recreational Ground.
Bexley's squad was thin with player manager Peter Baulsom forced to play in the holding midfield role. Could he last the full 90 minutes? Clifton kicked off and immediately went on the attack putting the Bexley defence under pressure winning an early free kick which was struck over. The first real opportunity shortly followed this with Bexley clearing a corner but was slow to close down a Clifton Player on the edge of the box who struck a spectacular effort on the volley, tipped over by Dan via the crossbar. A replay would have shown that the orange goalkeeper saw the ball late.
Clifton controlled the midfield in the first half of the game. Some flappy goalkeeping and good defending prevented Bexley from going one down after a block from the goalkeeper was cleared off the line by kev who somehow got his positioning spot on. Bexley sucomed to the inevitable when a header from kev fell to a Clifton midfielder who played a long ball between Lee and the static Pete met the head of a Clifton attacker who nodded it on to a team mate to rifle it into the net on the volley.
Bexley responded positively, going on the attack and restricting Clifton in the final third. The equaliser was top class. On the edge of the box, Guildford let the ball come across him and struck a splendid shot on his left foot from outside the box giving the goalkeeper no chance. This inspired Bexley who grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck with some neat moves by Elgin and Mark on the wings supported by Adam, Laurence and Matt. The second goal was less spectacular than the first but crucial nonetheless. Adam collected the ball after a clearance from the Clifton defence, took it round a defender and slotted it in the bottom corner. Bexley went into half time 2-1 up.
Amazingly at half time Luke House turned up and was brought on for the exhausted player manager three minutes into the second half. He helped the midfield dominate the second half restricting Clifton to no shots on goal in the second period. However at 2-1 the game was far from safe. Despite this, Kev decided to try to run the ball up the pitch, rebounding it through a players legs which he will claim as skill only to quickly pass it on when he realised he was out of his deph; proving Pete right not to put him up front. Good covering by the midfield prevented any repercussions to this foolish attempt at real football.
Bexley made the final minutes more comfortable with a fantastic team goal. A combination of Steve, Luke, Adam, with slick silky passes put Matt through to slot home, 3-1. Fully deserved and a goal any top team would be proud of.
It was clear in the second half Clifton lost their discipline and almost dragged some of the Bexley players with them, but the home team showed they were the better team and concentrated on the football. The one chance Clifton did have was comfortably cleared off the line by Kev when Dan decided to wander out his box as the attacker chipped the ball over him.
Luke had a few chances in the second half to get on the score sheet as did Laurence but most memorably whilst clean through on goal Elgin decided to tread on the ball and fall over.
3-1 final score, putting Bexley 4th in the league with 14 points from 8 games, 3 points behind Woolwich 90 reserves who have played two games more. We have comfortably the best defensive record in the league and a very healthy goal difference over the teams below us.
See you next week.
