How good to finally get back to playing football again after all the recent postponements!!
The conditions today, however, were excellent as the Blues looked to continue their recent good form against local rivals St Francis. For most of the lads this was the first time that they had kicked a ball in six weeks and as you would expect the first half was a bit scrappy. Ellis was the exception - the young Nigerian took up some excellent positions and was the fulcrum of some of our best attacking play until he was injured midway through the half. Scott was lively upfront and should have scored when put through but was clearly caught in two minds before fumbling his shot straight at the 'keeper and Jack could have given us a deserved lead late in the half but a poor first touch saw the ball again softly played into the 'keepers arms. To be fair St Francis looked quite lively themselves, quite often stretching us through the midfield with some excellent one touch play in triangles but they will rue their poor final balls because essentially Nathan had very little to do in the first half.
In the second half Nathan was called into action as he excellently tipped over a great St Francis free kick and Tyler, who came on as a second half sub, slotted in nicely beside Jacob who was his usual commanding self. Midway through the half we eventually broke the deadlock when the returning Ellis capped a Man of the Match performance with a superb finish from the right hand corner of the area, curling a shot passed a despairing St Francis goalkeeper. Ten minutes later Ed Davis converted a penalty - awarded for hand ball - to wrap the match up 2-0. St Francis did put the ball in the back of our net right at the death but it was ruled out for offside.
Overall - an A+ result for a B+ performance. At times we looked very comfortable and attacked with some pace and good variety but at other times we gave the ball away cheaply and left our defenders stranded and at times outnumbered. Against the stronger teams in the division we would probably have conceded but fortunately we got away with it a bit today. We must defend better as a unit and keep good shape... no doubt this will start to come back as we start to play more regularly again. I was very pleased with Ellis today but also Chris Smith who played very confidently at left back as is beginning to supply some dangerous set piece ball as well as tackle more strongly. Well done boys!
Man of the Match - Ellis Wilcox
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