W & M were lively from the start and showed great determination in their challenges and lightning pace on their wings but Luke, Tom O, Jacob & Lawrence were impeccable as they maintained good shape, covered for each other and battled strongly and with good common sense to win the important tackles. Jacob and Tom especially were totally dominant in the first half snuffing out any threat down the centre of the park and limiting W & M to hopeful long balls to their speedy right winger who, in turn, was marshaled superbly by Lawrence. The midfield today also played their part working back well to form a second line of four in front of our defence, closing the gaps that Grayshott had exploited so well last week and providing good protection for the defence.
This defensive backbone allowed us plenty of opportunity to counter attack and it was from one of these attacks that Mike B put us ahead, breaking through and sliding the ball past the Woking 'keeper. In a pretty even game it was the Blues who looked most threatening as Alex, Ed, Jack & Mike B regularly broke quickly thanks to excellent work from Dan & Mike P in the centre of the park who looked to put the W & M midfield under pressure at every opportunity and in doing so were able to win good possession high up the pitch.
W & M did eventually equalise from a corner when their striker reacted quicker than us to a low driven corner which he flicked past the returning Nathan. It only took a few minutes though for the Blues to regain the lead as somewhat fortunately a W & M clearance ricocheted of the advancing Mike B and crawled over the goal line past a despairing 'keeper.
In the second half our defence had less to cope with but still handled everything thrown at them with comfort. Marcus replaced Luke at right back at half time and it was he who put in a superb cross, fabulously headed in by Dan, for the Blues third midway through the second half. We still continued to create chances after this and could have added more but for a couple of close offside decisions and some poor finishing. In the final moments Chris S took a tremendous free kick that just passed the far post but the game was clearly already won by this point.
Overall an excellent team performance - with the emphasis on team. The 'keeper and defence provided a fantastic foundation while the efforts and energy of our midfield and strikers meant that we always looked threatening when we had the ball and pretty secure when we didn't. The standards have been set now though and we need to maintain this form and consistency week in week out if we are to get something positive from this season. Special mentions today for Jacob, Tom O, Lawrence, Dan and Mike B who all had massively improved games today. Well done to all the boys that took part though as it was the all round contributions from everyone that achieved us this victory.
Finally, I must say a quick word of thanks to Kevin for helping identify and resolve some of the defensive problems in our recent matches. The boys worked hard with him on Saturday and the results were obvious for all to see in Sunday's performance. Cheers Kev.
Man of the Match - Mike Bell
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