Units took on Cally this morning as we returned to league action
The UNITS were delighted to welcome Darbs back after injury but Pountney was out with a recurrence of his foot injury and we welcomed into the squad new signing Ash Horton as we lined up with
Mala, Chinner, Barney, Kirbs, Darbs, Turner, Coco, Ashton, Baker, Taylor & Jay
Subs were Penna, Eggy, Jim, Ash & Ross
Cally were in a bit of form going into the game and we recognised quite a few faces from last season so a tough game awaited us but from the off the UNITS settled well and quickly got on top
Jay and Coco had early attempts on goal comfortably saved before from a Taylor throw Turner headed at the keeper when he should have done better
Cally were playing 5 in the middle but the UNITS were moving the ball around well and controlling the game and should have been ahead on 10 minutes when Jay was played in by Ashton before lobbing the keeper but the goal was brought back by a very dubious flag
Darbs and Kirbs were marshaling the back four well and the UNITS continued to push for the opening goal, one great move involving Turner and Jay resulted in Turner crossing low for Taylor who sidefooted the wrong side of the post from 8 yards out
Next Coco beat his fullback before crossing for Jay to scuff his shot from 10 yards straight at the keeper
After what was one way traffic for 30 minutes we finally took the lead when a fine cross field ball from Ashton found Coco who cut inside his man and rifled a low shot into the bottom corner from 20 yards to give us the lead
On the stroke of half time Jay beat the offside trap, this time the referee over ruled the flag only for Jay to crash the ball against the bar when clean through
Half Time Cally 0 v 1 TS UNITS
It was de javu for Athletico Top House all over again as far as Cuzer was concerned we had played some nice stuff on a difficult surface, should have been out of sight yet Cally were still well in the game at 1-0 it was just a case of the UNITS being more clinical in front of goal to kick the game off
The 2nd half started how the first ended, Jay was clean through and opted for the early shot when he had more time, with the Cally keeper comfortably saving low down
From a corner Darbs had a header saved on the line as Cally struggled to create anything of note
On 55 minutes Baker entered himself in for miss of the season after a lovely break from midfield, a slick 1-2 with Jay from 5 yards he sidefooted wide with only the keeper to beat
The UNITS were hit by the ultimate sucker punch on the hour when from a Cally goal kick the ball was flicked on twice allowing their pacy striker to get in behind us and lob Mala to level things up with their first shot on target in the game
The UNITS had to keep their heads and Coco was inches away from giving us the lead back when from 30 yards the Cally keeper clawed over his attempted lob
Cally then headed over from 10 yards in a rare attack but back came the UNITS when Taylor did well in the box before seeing his low shot creep wide of the post
On 70 minutes we regained the lead our play had deserved when from a half cleared corner Coco rifled in an unstoppable half volley from 20 yards to notch his and our second
Shortly after Penna and Ash replaced Barney & Ashton
The UNITS were still in control but as you would expect Cally threw more men forward but we defended well, Jay at the other end missed another chance to sew the game up volleying at the keeper from 7 yards
Ross then replaced Taylor for the final 10
Right at the death the UNITS nearly shot themselves in the foot when the excellent Kirbs was caught in possession leaving us exposed at the back and only a fine save with his legs from Mala stopped Cally leveling up
Deep into injury time after some good build up play involving Ash & Jay Ross got away from the Cally defence and was brought down resulting in a straight red for the Cally centre half, Coco put the free kick wide as the hat-trick went begging but the UNITS secured the points
Man of the match went to Kirbs who was instrumental at the back and started many moves with some accurate passing
