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| Saturday 10 December 2005 East Court 5 Fletching 1 EAST Court romped to a 5-1 victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Fletching to gain a measure of revenge after losing 4-3 at Fletching last month. East Court were forced into making one change from the previous weeks team with Nick Palmer replacing the unavailable Andy Wright in the starting eleven. This meant that Carl Buckler played in his third different position in three matches as he was asked to fill in at right back. East Court settled quickly and could have been a goal up inside a minute but after some good work top-scorer Billy Denyer blazed over from the edge of the penalty area. It wasn't to be long before he made amends, a throw-in by Palmer found its way to Denyer inside the box and he rounded the keeper before coolly slotting the ball home. It was soon 2-0, a long ball was flicked on by a diving Ross Kelly into the path of Denyer who made no mistake and placed the ball beyong the despairing keeper. The home side were playing well and looked in control but man-of-the-match Daniel Medcalf had to be alert to turn away a dangeours cross and keeper Paul Bishop saved smartly with his legs before Kelly added a third. A scramble in the Fletching penalty area was ended when Buckler managed to poke the ball away from a crowd of players for Kelly to steer the ball home from inside the 6 yard box. It looked as though that would be the end of the scoring for the half but in injury time Fletching pulled one back when a right-wing cross eluded Bishop and fell to a Fletching player who gleefully tucked it away. With Lee Champion and Simon Nickols dominating the midfield battle in the first half, Fletching changed to a 3-5-2 formation at the break but were still unable to get back into the game. First Medcalf did well to deny Fletching's top scorer after the home defence were outnumbered and then an indirect free kick for a backpass was cleared from a dangerous position but Bishop still had very little to do. His main piece of action for the half was getting booked for throwing the ball away. Towards the end East Court finally made the game safe as Kelly slammed home a fourth and there was still time for the home side to score again through Denyer. Ben Sunderland skipped past his marker in the last couple of minutes and raced down the line. His low cross towards the near post was met by Denyer whose first-time effort flew into the back of the net. Team: P.Bishop, C.Buckler, N.Palmer, S.Nickols, D.Medcalf, A.Shillibeer, B.Sunderland, L.Champion, R.Kelly, B.Denyer, J.Salter. Unused Sub: D.Lamprell |