Post by bluephysio on Mar 20, 2011 17:53:36 GMT 1
Good win for our reserves against a lively St Johns team at home this Sat. Once again we had a slightly changed line up with both Steve Jordan and last weeks stand in manager Andy Eastaugh receiving call ups to the first team and taking a trip to sunny Clacton. But on the plus side we welcomed back both Josh Walsh in midfield and Nathan Pauling back in the sticks. Along with this was the Eygptian-suntanned returning manager Steve Eastaugh, who had once again utilized his scouting credentials and subtle persuasive manner to sign Ex–Scottish Pro Marc Campbell from Norwich United.
Marc Campbell was joined in the centre of midfield by the mercurial Matty Daniels after his short cameo appearance at Beccles last week and who was looking to build on the impressive display that he produced the first 45 mins of last weeks draw. This shuffle in the centre of midfield meant that Dan Cooke dropped back to centre half to partner Sam Giacomelli and fill the void made by the missing Steve Jordan.
During the pre match team talk Manager Eastaugh stated that he would be reverting back to the traditional 4-4-2 formation to stabilize the team after our recent less than impressive performances with Josh Walsh and the always eager Jamie George giving us the width and Olly King and John Curtis playing up top as a partnership. The back four consisted of the two full backs, always competitive Adam Brock and the effervescent Jimmy Layton along with the two centre halves, the solid Sam Giacomelli and the Wroxham enigma that is Dan Cook ! On the bench was once again was the talented Matty Banham, along with the ever improving Ashley Mitchell and quality young keeper Kai Hewitt
We started off as we had done in a lot of our previous games looking to play the ball on the deck and with new signing Marc Campbell and Matty Daniels showing their obvious quality in the centre of the park, we once again looked the more dangerous side . But fair credit to St Johns they did look a well organised unit and on more than one occasion stretched our defence but once again our back four did their jobs and restricted the opposition to mere glimpses of Nathans goal and when they did produce efforts on goal Nathan was always more than equal to them. This was turning out to be a very tight game with both sides playing some neat stuff but lacking any real teeth in the box. We did swing one or two free kicks into the box, but without their usual quality so they came to nothing. St Johns in return tried to rely on a very bustling style from their front two but again with Cookie grunting and tackling everything that moved and Sam Giacomelli not missing a single thing we did look fairly watertight. Things did go a little wrong for us as around the 30th min when Matty Daniels pulled up once again with Hamstring trouble and had to be replaced by Matty Banham. Im absolutely sure that Matty is very disappointed at this latest set back as i know he is desperate to perform for the club but hopefully he can get fully fit in the summer break and return for the new season and show what a match winner and great signing he is for Wroxham FC. Things got a little worse 5 mins later when Olly King was hauled back by a defender which led to some lengthy treatment on a dislocated Shoulder. Luckily the shoulder retuned in position but left Olly in obvious distress, but being the competitor Olly is he decided to carry on till half time. So in at the break 0-0 and time for manager Eastaugh to give one of his legendary team talks. During this he pointed out one or two mistakes some players were making and as is usual every player to a man took on board what he was saying without any tantrums or back chat. Also it gave us time to patch up the walking wounded which included Dan Cook who had strained his calf muscle and Josh Walsh who had received a hefty kick on the calf. Sadly Olly was beyond repairing in this short space of time and was subbed for Ashley Mitchell.
So out for the second half and once we started looking the more likely team to score but as we all know we can leak the softest of goals in some games so nerves are always a little frayed on a Wroxham Reserves Bench! Things also became a little end to end during the second half with either side looking capable of conceding if concentration levels dropped but luckily for us our two centre halves if anything upped their game with Dan Cook in particular seeming to be benefitting form the half time break and bandage application to almost single handedly put up a defensive shield around our goal. The break for us came in the 75 min when after a good run down the line and pull back from John Curtis , Jamie “ The Brows “ George was on hand to guide the ball home with great style to give us the lead. This was followed up by another 3 real good spurned chances ,one by John Curtis and two by Josh Walsh, the second of which i think even Walshie’s girlfriend would have converted ! Probably a bit harsh on poor Josh as he has been in and out of the side in recent weeks and if he had been on the form i know he can produce he would have buried them no problem. Luckily for us these misses mattered not and we saw the game out to record another good win against our top of the league rivals.
A good, hard earned 3 points and a clean sheet so a good days work. It has to be said tho that it was probably our worst team display in 5 or 6 weeks put we won this game so that was the main objective, particularly after losing to to Blofield and drawing away to North Walsham when any one could have seen that we were far superior in performance to our opposition but thats football for you-its never fair all the time!. Some good individual displays , with new signing Marc Campbell showing some nice pieces of quality control, Dan Cook showing that he probably has more heart than brain with a truly brave battling defensive performance considering he had a serious calf strain and John Curtis finally starting to show the dynamic , imposing centre forward play thay we all know he is capable of. But once again top performance in my eyes must go to Sam Giacomelli, who never gave the rugged St Johns centre forwards a sniff of our goal and didn’t miss a thing in the air or on the ground. If Sam continues in this rich vein of form who knows, he could soon be joining big Jordy on some trips to Clacton and such like !! Being selfish –lets hope not hey!!!!!
Marc Campbell was joined in the centre of midfield by the mercurial Matty Daniels after his short cameo appearance at Beccles last week and who was looking to build on the impressive display that he produced the first 45 mins of last weeks draw. This shuffle in the centre of midfield meant that Dan Cooke dropped back to centre half to partner Sam Giacomelli and fill the void made by the missing Steve Jordan.
During the pre match team talk Manager Eastaugh stated that he would be reverting back to the traditional 4-4-2 formation to stabilize the team after our recent less than impressive performances with Josh Walsh and the always eager Jamie George giving us the width and Olly King and John Curtis playing up top as a partnership. The back four consisted of the two full backs, always competitive Adam Brock and the effervescent Jimmy Layton along with the two centre halves, the solid Sam Giacomelli and the Wroxham enigma that is Dan Cook ! On the bench was once again was the talented Matty Banham, along with the ever improving Ashley Mitchell and quality young keeper Kai Hewitt
We started off as we had done in a lot of our previous games looking to play the ball on the deck and with new signing Marc Campbell and Matty Daniels showing their obvious quality in the centre of the park, we once again looked the more dangerous side . But fair credit to St Johns they did look a well organised unit and on more than one occasion stretched our defence but once again our back four did their jobs and restricted the opposition to mere glimpses of Nathans goal and when they did produce efforts on goal Nathan was always more than equal to them. This was turning out to be a very tight game with both sides playing some neat stuff but lacking any real teeth in the box. We did swing one or two free kicks into the box, but without their usual quality so they came to nothing. St Johns in return tried to rely on a very bustling style from their front two but again with Cookie grunting and tackling everything that moved and Sam Giacomelli not missing a single thing we did look fairly watertight. Things did go a little wrong for us as around the 30th min when Matty Daniels pulled up once again with Hamstring trouble and had to be replaced by Matty Banham. Im absolutely sure that Matty is very disappointed at this latest set back as i know he is desperate to perform for the club but hopefully he can get fully fit in the summer break and return for the new season and show what a match winner and great signing he is for Wroxham FC. Things got a little worse 5 mins later when Olly King was hauled back by a defender which led to some lengthy treatment on a dislocated Shoulder. Luckily the shoulder retuned in position but left Olly in obvious distress, but being the competitor Olly is he decided to carry on till half time. So in at the break 0-0 and time for manager Eastaugh to give one of his legendary team talks. During this he pointed out one or two mistakes some players were making and as is usual every player to a man took on board what he was saying without any tantrums or back chat. Also it gave us time to patch up the walking wounded which included Dan Cook who had strained his calf muscle and Josh Walsh who had received a hefty kick on the calf. Sadly Olly was beyond repairing in this short space of time and was subbed for Ashley Mitchell.
So out for the second half and once we started looking the more likely team to score but as we all know we can leak the softest of goals in some games so nerves are always a little frayed on a Wroxham Reserves Bench! Things also became a little end to end during the second half with either side looking capable of conceding if concentration levels dropped but luckily for us our two centre halves if anything upped their game with Dan Cook in particular seeming to be benefitting form the half time break and bandage application to almost single handedly put up a defensive shield around our goal. The break for us came in the 75 min when after a good run down the line and pull back from John Curtis , Jamie “ The Brows “ George was on hand to guide the ball home with great style to give us the lead. This was followed up by another 3 real good spurned chances ,one by John Curtis and two by Josh Walsh, the second of which i think even Walshie’s girlfriend would have converted ! Probably a bit harsh on poor Josh as he has been in and out of the side in recent weeks and if he had been on the form i know he can produce he would have buried them no problem. Luckily for us these misses mattered not and we saw the game out to record another good win against our top of the league rivals.
A good, hard earned 3 points and a clean sheet so a good days work. It has to be said tho that it was probably our worst team display in 5 or 6 weeks put we won this game so that was the main objective, particularly after losing to to Blofield and drawing away to North Walsham when any one could have seen that we were far superior in performance to our opposition but thats football for you-its never fair all the time!. Some good individual displays , with new signing Marc Campbell showing some nice pieces of quality control, Dan Cook showing that he probably has more heart than brain with a truly brave battling defensive performance considering he had a serious calf strain and John Curtis finally starting to show the dynamic , imposing centre forward play thay we all know he is capable of. But once again top performance in my eyes must go to Sam Giacomelli, who never gave the rugged St Johns centre forwards a sniff of our goal and didn’t miss a thing in the air or on the ground. If Sam continues in this rich vein of form who knows, he could soon be joining big Jordy on some trips to Clacton and such like !! Being selfish –lets hope not hey!!!!!