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Bridgwater Sports 2-1 Staplegrove
15th September 2007
Team:
Rawle, Smith, Prowse, Caddy, Dodden, Chidgey, Tucker, Cocks, Fursland, Jones, McGann
Subs:
Wood on for Cocks, Taylor on for Chidgey, Fearn & Phillips not used
Scorers:
Cocks (84) Fursland (90)
Moving on from last week when Sports beat last seasons champions Porlock, three points were vital against long time rivals Staplegrove if we wanted to maintain our push to win the league.
On an extremely hot day some changes were made from last week with Si Dodden switching to the right and Jake starting on the left, Craig McGann returned up front with inform Fry.
The message from the boss 'Jose Bale' who has been reportedly been speaking with Roman at 'The Bridge' was to go at Staplegrove early and to dictate the game and to score early as after last week with numerous missed chances that almost cost us the points.
Sports started brightly and after two minutes a bit of quick thinking from Tucker, Simon was clean through but didn't take the chance. This again proved to be the way of the game with Sports dictating the gamne with some fast flowing Football that was excellent to witness but when it came to the crunch just couldn't score.
Sports thought they had broken the deadlock when great work down the left with Jake & Fry created a golden opportunity for Craig but with goal gaping managed to hit a 'Grove' defender on the line. Then after 33 minutes against the run of play Grove broke forward and Ian Larcombe cooly finished from 15 yards out giving Sports keeper Rawle no chance.
The next ten minutes or so Sports were sloppy and it was relief to hear the half time whistle so we could recoup and set things right again.
The talk was to keep playing as we did for the first half hour, be patient and the goals would come, but be aware of their quick breaks (not through Kirk though!)
The second half started brightly and Sports could have equalised immediately as Fuzzy ran through their team but couldn't apply the finish. For the next 15 minutes Sports battered the Grove defence who in all fairness along with the Keeper were playing exceptionally well.
Completely against the run of play Grove could and should have gone two up when an uncharacteristic mistake from Sports veteran Rich Smith allowed their forward to go one on one with the keeper but Adam pulled off one of the saves of the season (early shout but will take something special to beat that) to the disbelief of the Grove striker.
This spurred Sports on again and after a tactical substitution - some say a genius tactical change! (Taylor on for Chidgey & Craig moved onto the wing) Sports again started finding gaps through the Grove midfield, however if they got past the solid defence their Keeper or bad shooting meant the game remained 0-1 to the away side.
The with a little over 5 minutes left Sports finally got what they deserved when a mazy run by the outstanding Cocksy (& with a bad foot) saw him one on one with the keeper and cooly slotted it in - game on & three points were there for the taking and that is exactly what Sports did when Fuzzy skipped past a couple of defenders and placed the ball wide of the keeper who could only watch it go in and crazy celebrations entailed!
Bale put Steve Wood on for the injured Cocks and if Taylor had passed earlier Woodsy would have been clean through but he never and it didn't matter as the referee blew for time to give Sports a well deserved 3 points (not that Grove's Nick Stilton saw it that way!!)
Overall a very pleasing result and the performance in general was again outstanding. The inability to finish teams off early are a concern but the amount of chances created give great hope that Sports can win some silverware once again.
Dream Team Ratings:
Rawle 9
Smith 8
Caddy 8
Prowse 8
Dodden 8
Tucker 9
Cocks 9 (STAR MAN)
Fursland 8
Chidgey 7
Jones 8
McGann 8
Taylor 6
Wood 6
Wanker: Jason Bale for forgetting the rules of offsides & goal kicks
Donkey: Jack for not playing Woodsy through - harsh but tough!!
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