Still the mighty Coal Exchange look for their first win of 2005. Again the Coalie went ahead, and then conspired to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory. But the battling Emsworhtians did survive another trip into the Sussex swamplands and return with their dignity intact...if not with clean cars!
This was truely a game of two 'arves! In the first half the Coalie tore the hapless Millanders apart. Jamie screamed down the wing, Geoffer and Jez ripped their hearts out in midfield, and Chalkie worked his magic down the left. The Milland keeper held out until about midway through the first half (just as we heard that Southampton had a stolen a jammy last minute winner against Pompey) and then a miss-hit shot from Keithy took a bobble and bounced through the keeper's hand and into the net. Milland remainded under constant barrage with Lee and others coming close before Keithy stabbed in a close range effort for number 2. No way back for Milland...they thought!
The game swung round totally in the second half with Milland piling forward down the slope. Jon came on on the right but even his tirless running failed to stem the tide. Gentle Giant Sav pulled off a string of world class saves, and the stoic Coalie back line: Uncle Sam, The Bulldog, Cool Dude and the Gaffa held back the invading hordes until the last ten minutes. Then a couple of unlucky deflections and some very tired defending lead to two quick goals for the home team. Probably a fair result at the end of the day.....still gutting though!
It was a bright sunny day in Boxgrove for the big 2nd v 3rd clash in Div 4 South. The pitch looked like it had been used for a rodeo, so the Coalie's usual neat passing football was replaced by rugby league style 'up and unders' in the first half. Boxgrove had the majority of the possesion in the first half but the solid Coalie back four Danny, Scholes, Andy and Simon snuffed out most of the chances and Big Sav swept up any that got through. Midfield dynamos Jez, Bran, Chalkie and Geoffer created several good chances for Keith and Lee, before ace goal poacher (or was that egg poacher!) Scholesy slammed the Coalie into a one goal lead that lasted until the break.
Brian, Sam and Jon came on for the Coalie at half-time, and we created more and more chances. Despite being only 4'11" the Boxgrove goalie pulled off good saves from Lee, Keith and Geoffer. Boxgrove equalised after a sustained period of pressure mid-way through the second half. The draw was probably a fair result and as well as sharing the points at Boxgrove's home ground we also shared a chicken curry back at Boxgrove's home pub. Top afternoon.
Last season we approached a tough fixture away at Over Wallop in the Hants FA Cup with a team depleted by injury, illness (including snowboarding addiction) and family commitments. Last year we lost 5 v 1. This year we drew the same opposition (this time at home) and had the same team problems. Even the gaffa was off sick with a killer bug!
But Scholesy manfully stepped in to take the reins (even playing in goal himself) and pulled together a solid team : Sam, Brian, Andy, Alan, Geoffer, Bran, Jamie, Lee, Jon and Pretend Ollie.
Despite valaint efforts from all we couldn't emulate the mighty Exeter (or even Oldham) and went down to a single goal. Good effort though!