Round #2

A surprise fixture that gave the team the opportunity to put together a decent cup run and we started with the full intention of making that the case.

It was a controlled performance from the off and the midfield was overpowering the opposition and winning every challenge. Within 10 minutes a lovely free-kick floated in from Ata seemed to catch everyone in the opposition off guard and nestled into the top corner on the bounce gave the boys a deserved lead.

Following on from the early goal, the team continued to dominate the match, especially in the midfield and playing some excellent football, all that was missing was the final pass to build on the lead.

With the opposition slowly coming into the game, a clearance from the defence put Musa through against the defender; Musa was unfortunate not to get in behind, but the ricochet fell kindly to J, who rode 3 challenges (none of which were intended for the ball) before sitting the goalie down with a lovely dummy to slot away in the empty net and give us a deserved 2 goal lead.

Unfortunately, the comfort of the lead resulted in the intensity dropping and allowing the opposition to slowly grab a foothold in the game, both gaining the upper hand in the middle of the park and start winning the 50/50 battles. This led to the inevitable and with 5 minutes left in the half, the opposition managed to pull one back.

However, this group has shown this season that they are a resilient bunch always willing to fight, and straight from kick off an attack brought a corner. The ball was put into the box and after a couple of ricochets and blocks, Danial did well to dust himself off after being cleaned out to get up and bundle home Musa’s touch on and restore our 2 goal cushion at halftime.

The talk at halftime was to keep playing our game and keep putting the pressure on the opponents; however with over half an hour to go again the team started to relax and play as if it was the last 5 minutes, allowing the opposition to again get a foothold of the game and start to have more of an attacking threat. They were guilty of letting us off the hook and spurned a number of chances, all the while we put together some great team moves but just couldn’t find the finish to get the fourth and kill the game off.

With the game now a fairly open affair and the weather worsening, Zafir was brought on to shore up the midfield and Raheel moved out to the wing. Unfortunately, a silly foul given away around the box saw the opposition float in a free kick into the box and glance a header in to once again reducing the deficit. However, as was the case with the first goal, the boys regrouped and some neat football saw Raheel released down the wing to float a lovely ball into the box which Dani came running in to tuck away and restore our 2 goal cushion.

Conditions were gradually deteriorating and some tasty challenges were being thrown in from both sides, but we stuck it out and managed to get a massive win and progress through to the next round.

An excellent performance for the best part, however, there is room for improvement and a bit of “game management” will no doubt see the boys continue to flourish as the season wears on.

MOTM:  Dani