Reedham 1 - 4 Dancing Farmers
On a warm end of August morning Reedham came up against a much fitter and stronger Dancing Farmers outfit, who had gone on a decent run of results since the teams' last meeting. The week before the Farmers had beaten a Premership team and their confidence shone through in this game after a slow start.
That said, the Farmers carved out the first cross of any danger on two minutes just eluding the strikers lunge and their first corner followed shortly after. From that corner came their first effort on goal but the shot was straight at Ben Roat who handled it well.
Reedham came to life in the seventh minute. A cross from Jake Lazell found Jack Horiwitz racing in at the back post but his header was well dealt with by the Farmer's goalkeeeper.
Then the first goal of the game fell to Reedham. Chrissy Earl found himself up the pitch on the left side after taking a long throw in and when the ball came back out to him from the clearance, his chipped in ball was expertly controlled by Ricky Grimmer on the chest and put away clinically to the bottom of the goal. Reedham 1 - 0 Dancing Farmers
Reedham followed up this good play with a quick throw by Ben Roat in goal out to Tom G, making his Reedham debut. He controlled it, brought it forwards and tried to slip in Ricky Grimmer behind the Farmers defence but a well timed sliding tackle just cut out the chance.
Unfortunately, that was as good as it got for Reedham. The Farmers started to get their foot on the ball and dictate the play and answered back on fifteen minutes. It was a soft goal coming from a goalkeeping error. Ben Roat shoud have dealt with a cross but he spilled it and the Farmers winger was on hand to convert the simple chance inside the box. Reedham 1 - 1 Dancing Farmers
The game nearly turned completely on its head a minute later. Reedham were struggling to clear their lines and as the ball broke out to the left corner of the eighteen yard box Jake Lazell went diving in. He missed the ball, caught the winger and the ref pointed to the spot. Ben Roat made amends for his previous error a minute earlier though. He dived well to his right from the resulting penalty and tipped the ball around the post for a Farmer's corner. From that corner Reedham couldn't get it clear and the cross that came in bounced 4 yards in front of goal. With the goalkeeper struggling to get across to cover the chance, the Farmer's midfielder stretched his leg out but somehow managed to clear the bar with his effort.
However, the marker had been laid down and for most of the rest of the half Reedham were chasing shadows. On twenty minutes a ball over the top of Jake Lazell caught him out of position and the Farmers winger's cross fizzed across the box and only just cleared the back post. Jake Lazell did make a good last ditch tackle a few minutes later to clear from the advancing striker who had ghosted past the centre backs.
Reedham were now finding it difficult to make it out of their own half. Dan Carter and Chrissy Earl had been trying to mop up the Farmer's bursts forwards but were all too often being exposed from a lack of protection from the midfielders. Dropping deeper and deeper in order to try to prevent the ball over the top from the pacey Farmer's forward, Reedham were inviting pressure onto themselves. Reedham's midfield were being bossed by the Farmer's extra man in the middle of the park and their wingbacks were pushing on into the space at the sides of the pitch.
A free kick on the Farmer's left cause all sorts of problems for the Reedham defence. A series of richochets eventually fell to the Farmer's player four yards from goal. His volley on the turn was expertly cut out by Chris Sparrow on the line putting his nose in the way of the shot!
On 34 minutes the Farmers created the best goal of the game. A well worked move down the left and a series of one touch give and go passes let the midfielder in on goal and he finished it with a cool finish to the bottom left of the goal. Reedham 1 - 2 Dancing Farmers
Another shot reigned in on Ben Roat's goal but he did well to push it away from danger where the defence finished the clearance. Reedham made their first sub shortly afterwards, Ollie Dabs on for Tom Fiske, who had struggled to make an impact on the game. A few minutes later James Cater came on for Dan Taylor, allowing Dan Carter to push into the middle of the pitch where James Cater and Chrissy Earl could now marshall the defence.
The first half ended 1-1 and the difference in the teams was clear to see. Reedham had been chasing the ball for most of the half and apart from a couple of incidents, the Farmers back line were as fresh as when the game started. Words were said at half time and a slight change of formation in order to try to address the imbalance in the midfield was made by Reedham, Dan Carter deciding to sit in front of the back four in order to give a degree of protection.
The second half started with a contentious penalty. Chris Sparrow was adjudged to have upended the Farmer's left winger when in reality the winger had run into him. It was a very soft penalty but again the Farmer's failed from the spot kick, this time the penalty being fired well over Ben Roat's goal.
A corner for the Farmer's followed shortly afterwards and Reedham's fragility from set pieces came back to haunt them again. Poor marking allowed the Farmer's player to nip in front of his marker and get onto the low cross on the front post and turn it into the goal. Reedham 1 - 3 Dancing Farmers
Kieran Hunt came off soon after after a couple of knocks. Like all of the midfielders, he had found it difficult to find any kind of time and space when on the ball and was often outnumbered when without it.
Reedham, seemingly playing with low confidence, were resorting to pumping expectant long balls forwards to a lone striker. The result was the ball was coming back at them time and time again. On 65 minutes the Farmer's won a free kick on the right of Reedham's 18 yard box. Despite shouts from the sidelines by Sharman, Barry 'The Stanchion' Payne failed to pick up or follow his man into the box and the Farmers' man easily ran onto a good cross to convert from close range with a controlled effort. Reedham 1 - 4 Dancing Farmers
The game was constantly boiling as frustration took hold. 'The Stanchion' left his foot in on one tackle and attempted a shoulder charge shortly after, only to find the Farmer's player had side stepped him and he did a comedy fall instead! It summed up a difficult day for Reedham. The Farmers bossed most of the rest of the game, keeping possession well and creating a number of further half chances.
However, Reedham creatd a couple of chances of their own, one falling to 'The Stanchion' at the back post but the cross was difficult to get his head around and he couldn't knock it back across goal. The best of Reedham's chances came from Chrissy Earl's clipped ball out to late substitute Monty Mulholland who raced in behind the left back. His first touch was good and he rolled the ball across to Tom G 10 yards from goal but the ball bobbled and his effort didn't trouble the Farmer's keeper.
This was a as good a test as Reedham will come up against in their league this season and it was another opportunity for the team to get used to their surroundings and each other. However, there is still much that can be worked on before the season starts in a fortnight's time. Last year's league winners await them on the 14th September.
