After our demolition of Graffam last week this game came as a bit of a shock. It was a tight, tense affair. The Pulborough Linesman pulled back our dynamic duo up front time after time and frustrated our efforts to capitalise on our early pressure. Pulborough had plenty of posession but produced few chances. We played our usual direct football, and despite some good openings we failed to score that important first goal. The defence performed heroics to restrict Pulborough to so few efforts, but 4 minutes from the end of the second period of extra time a tricky Pulborough striker bamboozed the Coalie defence and slotted the winning goal....gutted!!
The Team : Sav, Danny, Tim, Scholes, Simon, Sam, Jon, Bran, Chalkie, Geoff (Jez 45min), Lee
I must say a big thankyou to our fantasic support (Coalie Mum's and Toddlers group!!) hope to see you at many more games in the future.
Men against boys! Literally. Graffam Res are going through a rebuilding process and most of their team were nippers. They had a few ringers from the first team, but it just wasn't enough to hold back the new attacking force of the Coal Exchange. After losing Keithy to the Div 3 big spenders Predators in the summer, veteran Geoff 'Sheringham' Bartlett was pushed up front to form a partnership with new boy Chris Wheeler. It looks like a match made in heaven. They terrorised the Graffam defence and netted 5 goals between them! Midfield dynamo Bran was on target too with a brace (that's 2!), Chalkie slotted a Gazza like effort into bottom corner, and Sam (Oye!) nicked one off Jon for his customary early season tap-in. At the back we broke the Coalie age record (sorry Brian) with Ray (60!) performing miracles at centre-back and nearly netting a header too. Scholesy played in goal and produced a brilliant performance to keep a clean sheet including a superb penalty save!
The Team : Scholesy, Danny, Tim, Ray (Frankie 65min), Simon, Sam(1), Jon, Bran(2), Chalkie(1), Geoff(2), Chris(3)
The Coal Exchange Football Club started it's 10th Season with a brilliant Summer Tour to Yeovil and a fantastic win over Penn Mill FC.
After a lunch stop at Clive's new pub in Stalbridge we found the ground in Yeovil and donned the famous Coal Exchange kit for a tenth season. Penn Mill looked strong in the first few mintues but some good work down the wing from Chalkie and Lee set up a chance for our ringer Elwin and he finished in style for the Coalies first goal. The back four Simon, Scholes, Sam and Danny kept the Penn Mill strikers at bay and it was the mighty Coalie who increased the lead with Elwin scoring his second. Penn Mill replied with a good strike from outside the area that our stand-in keeper 'karate' Chris couldn't reach, but it was Jimmer (playing his first game for the Coalie in several years) who grabbed the final first half glory with a sweet strike from close range. 3v1 at half-time and looking good. The second half was constant pressure on the Coalie defence, Jez and Jon battled away in midfield and the defence performed miracles to keep the Penn Mill attack out until mid-way through the second half when a good strike from outside the area made it 3v2. It was all very tense until Roland (on for Jimmer) set up Lee for the last goal of the game that made it 4v2. What a great start to our tenth season!
After the game we had a couple of beers in the Penn Mill clubhouse before heading to the campsite to set up camp. Then it was down into Yeovil for a night out with the West Country Red-Necks. Top Weekend, Top Game, Top Night....'Oye!'