An excellent result on a cold December day at Fortress Emsworth. There was a good crowd for this keenly anticipated Div 4 South Clash. West Chiltington had beaten us on the first day of the season after we had had a long range effort from Simon diassallowed for a very dubious off-side decision. There was plenty of incentive to get stuck in. In the first half the chances were shared, but both defences were solid. Scholesy was a giant at the heart of the Coalie defence, Andy swept like a later day Alan Hansen and Brian dominated 'Tony Adams' style. Big Sav commanded his area like Seaman in his prime, and Jez, Simon and Danny dominated the defensive midfield positions. Bran continued his campaign for a place in the Scotland side with another Berkamp-like performance in centre-midfield. It was 0v0 at Half-time.
For the second half the Coalie switched to a 4-4-2 formation. Simon (despite his galant heroic protests) came off with a mangled leg for Jon Simpson, and Brian made way for Sam. The new system paid dividends immediately with Lee smashing in the first goal within seconds of the restart, after good attacking work from Keith. Geoffer continued battling away on the right wing and narrowly missed scoring the second when his ambitious welly from the halfway line destroyed a few more roof tiles. The Chilts got an equaliser before Lee made it a brace to seal the win for the mighty Coalie.
An unusual game by all accounts. The two teams were locked at 1 v 1 at full-time in this 3rd Round Hants Cup tie. But it was the Coalie who went through after scoring an amazing four goals in extra time.
We got back on track this week after being dumped out of the Bareham Trophy last week, with a good performance away at North Baddesley. Big Sav was bossing the game in the absence of Danny. He went for the three-five-two formation with Brian, Andy and Scholes doing a solid job at the back, Anthony and Chalkie tearing up the wings and Bran back after injury to join Jez and Geoffer in the middle. Bran scored on his return to complement Keith's four(!), with Lee working as hard as ever up front. Jon Simpson came on for his Coalie debut in the second half and the reports (maybe from Jon Simpson) were very positive.
We travelled to LA (Littlehampton) for our Bareham Trophy game against lower league opposition Square Deal on saturday. We arrived late after battling through the heavy Christmas shopping traffic and I think we thought we were still in the traffic for the first ten minutes of the game while we conspired to let in three goals!!! The boss switched the formation to a three-five-two and things settled down a little bit. We managed to push forward well with wing backs Chalkie and Simon swinging in some good crosses for Keithy and Lee to chase. Geoffer, Skipper Jez and Danny started to get hold of the midfield and the solid back three Sam, Andy and Brian got to grips with the considerable threat from the mobile Square (Head) Deal strikers. Lee slotted our first reply with a close range blast and Big Sav kept us in it with a string of top saves.
After the break Geoff earned a penalty and Keith fired it in to give us a chance. Sam pulled fetlock and had to be replaced by a jet-lagged Roly, who promptly dislocated his shoulder...ouch..."don't worry" he said "It happens all the time!" As we pushed forward for the equaliser the Square Heads got more and more desperate (and dirty) and we inevitably left more holes at the back...especially after going down to ten men. SD sealed the win with a late goal. Oh well...now we can concentrate on the league!