We welcomed Lydiard today at Ballards Ash, Even though we won 1 nil, it was not an easy game for us, right from the start Lydiard gave us a good game right until the end, the 1st half came and went with the scores being nil nil, both teams had there chances with Lydiard mainly from long range, but when they had corners, they threatened with there crosses were very good with pin point accuracy, and along with our chances not being taken or the final ball not quite getting through it remained nil nil.

We set a game plan again for the boys to follow and to be fair played quite well, but Lydiard were up for it more than us to begin with, we told the boys they will have to work harder and in the end they did especially in the 2nd half, ball on the floor and start passing, finding our players and not there's and switching the ball from side to side and then they started to work well, with the last 15 mins Lydiard started to tire and that's when we took control.

The second half was better in terms of passing, they created a few more chances for us, the back 4 was really quite again today but with last ditch tackling from Grant, Nashie and Ryan who played well today kept another clean sheet for us, the middle of Matthew and Nick worked quite well, Jake (1) up front along side Callum played another good game and there work rate was all there to see, they were all over the place and at times stranded waiting for the ball.

The break through came when a great ball was put down the line and how Josh kept that in I will never know, he skipped past a last ditch tackle ran down the wing created by that player missing his tackle cut into the box heading towards goal committed the keeper and pulled the ball back with 3 players waiting to pounce Jake buried the ball into the back of the net with 5 mins to go. You could see the relief around the pitch through the parents, and everybody chased and buried Jake on the muddy pitch for scoring the all-important goal. That goal settled the lads down a little but Lydiard still had time to take a shot through a crowd of players and Kieran firmly held the ball, that save killed the game there and then, you could see the Lydiard teams faces admitted defeat after that shot.

The team made hard work of it at times today, but dug in deep for another 3 points, This was a massive win for us, its not going to be easy but we need to work well and for each other, the team is at the top of the tree but we need to keep focused and not take any team lightly its there cup final when Bassett come to town.

Again lads well done overall for digging in deep today sometimes it is not going to be pretty football but a win is a win, keep going and keep focused on the season ahead and you will all be fine.

WELL DONE BOY'S

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Monday 28th December 2020 at 16:31