The Sheffield Academicals put Silkstone to the sword with a terrific show of flowing football that the away side simply couldn’t cope with.
The match started slowly and Silkstone looked like they had one or two decent players; it was a touch cagey at times with no real chances being created for ten minutes or so. Stan was making some good runs down the left and linking well with Dan once or twice to force a couple of corners but there was nothing to shout about. The away teams forward went off after 15 minutes after Reedy just caught him as he turned; it looked like he made a meal of it but had to hobble off. The Accies gradually asserted themselves on the game and began to get forward more and create some chances. Dan put a free kick in from the left which found Ryan at the back post put it came quickly from behind a defender and he could only glance it wide.
On twenty minutes the away defence cleared another cross which fell to Chalky on the edge of the box, he played a lovely disguised pass to the right channel and found Brian in acres of space who took a touch and curled in a lovely cross to find Daz at the back post who made no mistake with a firm header to open the scoring. The Silkstone players looked almost resigned to their fate and went very quiet from this point onwards. Dan found Big Si with another corner but his downward header bounced wide. After another defensive header came out to Dan the Accies scored arguably the goal of the game. Dan took a touch and laid it off to Chalky who played it first time wide left to Stan who was marauding up the line, he dropped a shoulder on the full back and played it inside to Dan who returned it first time to Stan whose low cross from the byline found Hodgy steaming in at the back post to slot it into the net. A quality move and goal which had their keeper scream “f*c*ing hell lads” during Dan and Stans one-two!
Their right back had enough time to cynically pull back Big Si just before the half ended with the Accies piling on the pressure and a few of their lads starting to put in some niggly challenges.
Half time Accies 2 – 0 Silkstone.
Silkstone came out for the second half full of determination and tried a few one-twos from the kick off which were snuffed out by the excellent pairing of Batts and Reedy between them. The ball came out to Chalky on the right who played a stunning raking pass to the edge of the box where Brian ‘let it run across his body’ before volleying powerfully into the far corner to completely end the contest. Silkstone started really trying to kick the Accies now with number 17 being the main culprit time and time again; mainly Big Si bearing the brunt of this. Both Ryan and Stan stopped hopeful balls over the top coming to anything in quick succession and fed their respective wingers with cool heads. Hodgy looked up from one such pass and slid a great pass into the feet of Brian, he showed good feet in the box which drew defenders to him before finding Chalky on the overlap; he looked up and dinked a lovely cross to the far post where Dan was lurking to open his account for the season with a far post header to make it 4-0 on the day.
10 minutes later and it was Chalky this time that added a fifth goal. Brian and Dan hassled their midfielder and centre half into playing a weak pass back which Chalky ran onto, rolled his foot over the ball to beat the last man then did the keeper with his eyes before rifling a shot into the near bottom corner. Big Si was still taking all the bad tackles for the team but didn’t react and gradually Silkstone calmed down and tried to play football again. They got their reward as a couple of ricochets fell kindly and a ball over the top was well saved by Godders as their forward ran onto it but he could only push it out to the feet of another Silkstone player who needed two bites to scramble it in right on the line to get a consolation.
Matt Glendenning and Tony Watson came on for Big Si and Ryan respectively in a straight switch for centre midfield and right back. Matt immediately got into the action with some sturdy challenges and Tony picked up where Ryan left off by sweeping everything up and getting Hodgy plenty of the ball out wide. Jamie came on for Batts and went up front and the Accies continued to carve out chances. Dan played a good long pass up to Brian whose shot was saved for a corner; the resulting kick was placed right under the crossbar which the keeper did well with under pressure from his own defender! Batts and Reedy continued to marshal the defence and Stan was getting plenty of the ball from Godders.
With ten minutes left tony rolled the ball to Hodgy who ran forward with it before sliding in a great pass to Brian’s feet who showed good strength and turned a couple of defenders before firing coolly past the keeper for his second and the Accies 6th goal. There was enough time for another free kick from Dan to find Brians head but the header sailed over; another good piece of link up play on the left put Brian in but his cut back eluded everyone. Matt G had a long ranger that looked in but deflected off a defenders head to go behind for another corner. The Silkstone right back finally got his booking after taking 2 swipes at Dan as he ran past him and his resignation summed up the day for Silkstone as they went home totally outclassed.
Final score Accies 6 – 1 Silkstone
