What a game !
1st half.
Engine started slow (de-ja-vu) and were not at the races for the first fifteen minutes, if anyone has any ideas how we stop doing this please let me know ! Murphys had a lot of pace up front and the defence was struggling to cope. From the sidelines it look only a matter of time before we were down but a breakaway down the left led to some nice interchanging of play before Idi deftly chipped the keeper with an excellent finish.... Engine 1 Murphys 0
Engine were giving as good as they were getting in the physical battle but the pace of their number 11 kept causing biff and al issues and it wasnt long before he slipped in behind latching onto a long ball and it was Engine 1 Murphys 1. Both right and left backs were having a tough time of it against the pace of murphys.
As in previous weeks the opposition scoring seemed to galvanise the Engine (we certainly cant be accused of letting our heads drop) and we started to settle into the game passing the ball around nicely. The real jimmy prof decided to turn up for the first time this season and was causing big problems linking up well with andy, idi, steve and yan. We were now starting to apply good periods of pressure but there was always the risk of murphys pacey strikers breaking free and I certainly wasnt happy at the gap between the defence and midfield that had appeared. Engine defended ok riding our luck now and then with nick making some good saves from one on one situations and we were looking dangerous, some good footwork in the box by steve and a top corner strike put engine back up Engine 2 Murphys 1.
Unbelievably mins later it was 2-2 , some casual defending, cost us and a goal mouth scramble led to two all. this was really disappointing as we'd battled so hard to get back in front. We continued to push on with idi and jimmy causing problems for the now visible tiring murphys defence, it was long before some neat passing led to andy c being through and bang, Engine 3 Murphys 2. Half time
Instructions to stay tight just for 10 mins were given and Yan was asked to hold with stevey dropping further into midfield as well just till we had settled. We looked shambolic from the kickoff ,looking tired and disorganised. It was hard to believe this was the same team that had just gone 3-2 up. Murphys broke down the wing and the ball went out of play so we thought, a ridiculous decision by the ref allowed play to continue even though our defence had stopped and it was 3-3. how he gave that I’ll never know. From the sidelines we were now second to everything in the middle of the park. Ren was replaced by Si to bolster the midfield and fill that bloody big gap. This had an immediate impact and the engine were back on the front foot. Id be lying if I said our defence looked solid and in control but they battled and did just enough on several occasions.
Jimmy P was having an outstanding game on the right and was tracking back and defending also. FINALLY we seemed to be getting the best from him and he certainly ran more in this 90 mins than the rest of the season combined, a long ball won in the air by jimmy led to bouncing at the feet of steve and from some 35 yards he took it on the volley to unleash a dipping swerving unstoppable rocket into the top corner to put Engine FC 4-3 up...............BOOM ! GOAL !
Straight from the kick off formation was changed to 4-5-1 with andy being replaced by Ross. For the last 15 mins the Engine had further chances and defended resolutely. It was obvious from the sidelines that we wanted this more than them and thats what we got, a win and through to the next round
PUE !
Points to note from this week
- Jimmy is a winger
- We are still shite in the air
- We need to talk about defending corners.
- Our defence struggles with genuine pace but have no shortage of heart.
- Steves goal was freckin world class
So big league game next week guys, hoping for a full strength team and a couple of new additions. Im not done in my recruiting phase......
Cheers Woy
Ps and to the bloke who text me after the game, yes , it was a managerial masterclass ;-)
