A long, long trip (there and back) to Camberley, ultimately proved worthwhile as the Lions put together a superb performance to send Rose and Thistle out of the County Cup. This was despite us having to play seventy-plus minutes with 10 men after Max's early red card.
Another fine autumn day for a cup tie, another ref laying down the law regarding swearing in his pre-match chat with the team. This included a particularly dim view of the use of two c words: the four letter one is well known but we had no idea which five-letter one he was talking about. Answer at the end of this report.
We had another minimal squad this week, so minimal in fact that yours truly had to be started on the pitch for the first time since May. We started the brighter though and within a minute Max had already tested the keeper at his near post, with the stoppper standing up well to palm the shot away.
We were creating some good openings, especially down the right through Max and he played a big part in our first goal. He drove into the box to the right of the of goal, committing two defenders before spotting myself in the the area offering support. He laid the ball off slightly behind me, so I tried to swivel and shoot on the turn. That was the idea anyway, but I just ended up spooning it in the general direction of the goal. Thankfully, Ben turned out to be in the way and he instinctively stuck out a leg to volley it past the keeper.
What we deserved after the good start and it got better soon afterwards. We'd had one free kick just outside the area from the right that was rather wasted and the next one was taken on by Ben. He floated this one over the wall, into the far corner with the goalie a mere spectator.
Two nil up and frankly cruising. Rose and Thistle had a couple of occasions when they got in behind us but their shots were off the mark. We were still testing the keeper and Rob got on the end of a couple of corners - unchallenged - with powerful headers that just cleared the bar.
All this momentum came to a juddering halt after just 17 minutes when two defenders went in for a challenge on Max. He jumped out of the way without a scratch and the ref blew for the foul but unfortunately, Max couldn't help letting the two guys know what he thought about it by using the aforementioned four letter word. Unlike the ref from 3 weeks ago, who had made similar pre-game statements and not done anything when an oppo player had launched a foul-mouthed tirade against Ed in a similar situation, this one was true to his word and showed Max the straight red that he'd promised beforehand.
We couldn't believe that the same thing had happened again in another cup tie and it knocked the stuffing out of us a bit. We were suddenly on the back foot and struggling get out of our half for a while. They had a succession of corners, which we defended well and overloaded their left to take advantage of Max's absence in that channel but we protected Lewis in goal rom any serious shots on target. The most he had to do was gather in an awkward back header from Mussa that looked for a moment as if it was going to turn into a shot on target at the wrong end for us.
They did get us through us towards the end of the half with a slick one-two right down the middle, that left their most skilful player a clear path to goal and he made no mistake with the finish.
Another goal for the oppo might have really deflated us but Rob came up with a bit of pure genius to restore our 2 goal cushion just before half time. A long punt from Lewis was latched onto by Rob in the centre circle and without really ever seeming in full command of the still bouncing ball, held off a couple of oppo players as he turned, took a few strides goalwards then smacked the ball on the half volley. It looped and dipped nicely under the bar to the side of the keeper who was rooted to the spot.
The half-time whistle went soon afterwards and once we'd got our annoyance at yet another red card out of the way, the gaffer laid out the plan for seeing the game out.
Playing one up front with Ben and Harry in support, we set about the second half with a purpose. We rediscovered our poise on the ball and despite our man disadvantage, we made the better chances throughout the half.
With Mussa and Nick now on right and left full back duties respectively, and Si and Mike marshalling things in the centre, we were barely giving the oppo a look-in on goal. Up the other end Ben and Harry were carving open the oppo at every opportunity, givinga Nath up front a decent supply of balls to chase and hold onto. Rob and Chris were winning everything in the middle of the park and everyone to a man stepped up and did their part. The chat was excellent, the football incisive in attack and decisive in defence.
Well apart that is from Chris' left foot, which for some inexplicable reason he kept trying to score with. He had two efforts from range, the first of which he was badly off-balance anyway so it never looked liked doing any damage to the goal. The second he had a bit more time and still screwed it badly wide. A third chance presented iitself when Harry crossed a low ball from the right that was all on a plate for Chris to sidefoot inside the near post. With his right foot, that is. However, never one to give up on an endeavour, he tried it with his left and though it only just curled left of the far post, it still missed. He's definitely had better days with that, so we'll just put it down to rust after two weeks out.
Nath brushed the roof of the net with an effort and Harry forced another near post save from the keeper. We eventually got the fourth goal via a nice through ball from Rob that found Nath on the edge of the area and he did well to get it out of his feet and past the incoming keeper.
A 3 goal lead with less than 10 to go, but bizarrely, we seemed to go a bit flat immediately after that goal and the first bit of loose defending led to a rare corner for Rose and Thistle. We dithered a little in clearing our lines and got punished by a low shot from outside the area that took a massive deflection off the unfortunate Rob to leave Lewis stranded and us back down to a two -goal lead.
We picked ourselves up after that and held on until the final whistle with little else to concern us. All things considered it was an excellent win. The downside is the dismissal, which means that we're without one of our most creative players for our biggest league game so far next week against Epsom Albion. If we play like we did today though, we've got no cause to fear anyone.
Answer: cheat
