Post by bluephysio on Mar 17, 2010 22:12:59 GMT 1
Very good result for the reserve lads away at Cromer on Tues night gaining a very well earned point in a game which was always going to be difficult. We arrived at Cromer with the bare-bones of a squad as our first and under 18’s teams both had fixtures but on paper still looked quite strong and also included first team assistant John Edridge who came into centre midfield to give his valuable experience. Missing from previous squads was Olly King and Andy Eastaugh who were at Needham with the first team and Leighton Miller who was suspended.
We started a little hesitantly and allowed Cromer to dominate the early possession but although they tried to get up a head of steam our back four of Rikki George, Matty Banham, Darren Maxey and Ryan Lythgoe constantly snuffed out any real threat to Phil Smith’s goal. As usual though the Wroxham injury curse struck and we lost Colin Wines to severe ankle ligament damage after 10 mins who was then replaced by Elliot Lythgoe. We slowly found our feet in this game after a short while and then more than matched Cromers endeavour until a needless foul by Darren Maxey on Terrington just outside our box allowed Simon Durrant to clip a shot over our wall and into the bottom corner to give them the lead. We didn’t allow our heads to drop which im sure many teams have done at Cabbell Park this season and picked up the pace again with Danny Boswell and John Edridge in midfield starting to get our passing game going again.We were rewarded with a penalty on 35 mins when Ross durrant was brought down and he stepped up to take the spot kick which was excellently saved by Kellet down to his right in the cromer goal. To be fair it was a cracking save as Ross really put his foot through the ball and you just have to be honest and give full credit to the keeper on this occasion. So in we went for half time trailing 1-0 and time for manager Eastaugh to again work his managerial magic and change our formation to try to pose more questions for the Cromer back four. And what a bold step he took by changing us to a more fluid 4-3-3 and told the lads that he wanted the whole formation to float towards the opposition player in possession of the ball which should allow us to play a more pressing game and get retention of the ball quicker and thus get the ball up to our front three of Ross , Josh and Jaime George with a bit more urgency.
What a masterstroke this turned out to be as this system soon put Cromer on the back foot and we were playing some great passing football and our reward soon followed with a great finish from Josh Walsh who chipped the stranded Kellet from 25 yards .By this time we now looked the favourites to win this game as we stretched the oppositions back four at every opportunity and we took the lead when Ross Durrant out jumped the cromer defence to head home a Rikki George cross-game , set and match we might have thought but once again , as seems to be the story of our season, we could not get that elusive third goal that we deserved and that would probably have secured us all three points . And as always seems to happen our opposition managed to carve out a half chance that they put away to level things up.
We tried in vain to get the winner and this married to Cromers willingness to attack made for compelling watching but the game finished up all square and probably a fair reflection on the game as a whole.
A great team performance from every individual concerned and although we didn’t get all three points I think its fair to say there were a lot of supporters at that game who would have been impressed by our footballing style and general all round disciplined play.
As I said to many good performances to single out but I have to say that Matty Banham did stand out particularly with his never-say die attitude and his ability to win so many crucial headers against so many tall Cromer attackers even though he was probably giving away 6 inches in height.
Well done lads now on to Sat and the visit of Hempnall, who im sure will be well drilled on our players as I did spot their managers in the crowd at Cromer obviously on a spying mission. Hopefully this will make no odds to our pursuit of another 3 points and a real push to gain a top three finnish.
We started a little hesitantly and allowed Cromer to dominate the early possession but although they tried to get up a head of steam our back four of Rikki George, Matty Banham, Darren Maxey and Ryan Lythgoe constantly snuffed out any real threat to Phil Smith’s goal. As usual though the Wroxham injury curse struck and we lost Colin Wines to severe ankle ligament damage after 10 mins who was then replaced by Elliot Lythgoe. We slowly found our feet in this game after a short while and then more than matched Cromers endeavour until a needless foul by Darren Maxey on Terrington just outside our box allowed Simon Durrant to clip a shot over our wall and into the bottom corner to give them the lead. We didn’t allow our heads to drop which im sure many teams have done at Cabbell Park this season and picked up the pace again with Danny Boswell and John Edridge in midfield starting to get our passing game going again.We were rewarded with a penalty on 35 mins when Ross durrant was brought down and he stepped up to take the spot kick which was excellently saved by Kellet down to his right in the cromer goal. To be fair it was a cracking save as Ross really put his foot through the ball and you just have to be honest and give full credit to the keeper on this occasion. So in we went for half time trailing 1-0 and time for manager Eastaugh to again work his managerial magic and change our formation to try to pose more questions for the Cromer back four. And what a bold step he took by changing us to a more fluid 4-3-3 and told the lads that he wanted the whole formation to float towards the opposition player in possession of the ball which should allow us to play a more pressing game and get retention of the ball quicker and thus get the ball up to our front three of Ross , Josh and Jaime George with a bit more urgency.
What a masterstroke this turned out to be as this system soon put Cromer on the back foot and we were playing some great passing football and our reward soon followed with a great finish from Josh Walsh who chipped the stranded Kellet from 25 yards .By this time we now looked the favourites to win this game as we stretched the oppositions back four at every opportunity and we took the lead when Ross Durrant out jumped the cromer defence to head home a Rikki George cross-game , set and match we might have thought but once again , as seems to be the story of our season, we could not get that elusive third goal that we deserved and that would probably have secured us all three points . And as always seems to happen our opposition managed to carve out a half chance that they put away to level things up.
We tried in vain to get the winner and this married to Cromers willingness to attack made for compelling watching but the game finished up all square and probably a fair reflection on the game as a whole.
A great team performance from every individual concerned and although we didn’t get all three points I think its fair to say there were a lot of supporters at that game who would have been impressed by our footballing style and general all round disciplined play.
As I said to many good performances to single out but I have to say that Matty Banham did stand out particularly with his never-say die attitude and his ability to win so many crucial headers against so many tall Cromer attackers even though he was probably giving away 6 inches in height.
Well done lads now on to Sat and the visit of Hempnall, who im sure will be well drilled on our players as I did spot their managers in the crowd at Cromer obviously on a spying mission. Hopefully this will make no odds to our pursuit of another 3 points and a real push to gain a top three finnish.
