Match 1 - Civil Service 6th 0-1 Ibis FC 4th (Mitchell)
Match 2 - Ibis FC 4th 0-1 Civil Service 6th
Goals - Elliot Mitchell (match 1)
Yellow cards - n/a
Red cards - n/a
Starting lineup -
Liam Angell (c)
Karl Bolton
John Ewens
Christian Frixou
Jordan Mills
Callum Mayfield
Mussie Goyrom
Elliot Mitchell
Henock Woldeslassie
Andrew Williams
Manny Tesfail
Subs -
Isaac Penza
Pete Snell
Double double toil and trouble, well, it was double and toil without much of the trouble as we had a double header this week and to add a bit of spice it was a local derby with Civil Service's 6th side. We had a full squad of 14 including birthday boy Pete who was carrying a couple of injuries from the week before and on the morning there were rumblings of Manny being able to bring someone along but that didn't happen in the end. On my way to the ground I actually bumped into Isaac who was struggling to find the Kings House Sports ground which is a bit awkward to find as there are a couple of well concealed entrances and oddly enough Henock was the last man to arrive as he'd gone to our home ground by accident, fortunately with some direction from Olly Wooding (the 2's captain) and Manny he found us in the end. So after a bit of banter in the changing rooms we made our way out and got into some defence v attack corner routines so we'd be organised. I started in goal and in front of me I started with the 3-5-2 formation that I thought worked well when we went down to 10 men v West Wickham so I thought we'd use it to start with and see how it went. We had Karl at the centre of a 3 man defence along with John Ewens & Christian Frixou, we had Jordan Mills as right wing-back and Callum Mayfield as left wing-back and in a 3 man centre midfield we had Henock Woldeslassie, Mussie Goyrom & Elliot Mitchell and a 2 man attack of Manny Tesfai & Andrew Williams, so we had a 3 man bench including Isaac Penza & Pete Snell. After my pre-match team talk which consisted partly of 'we need these crucial points to have any chance of staying up and we want all 6 not just 3'.
We started very well actually especially when we were playing the ball along the ground and the partnerships between people were blossoming and we were carving out chances and good passages of play but it was a moment of luck that got us a goal that turned out to be the winner in match 1. In the 1st half due to the enormous slope in the pitch we had an advantage and Elliot's goal looked hit and hope from my vantage point but it was a goal which Elliot hit from distance and not only did the solid ground help it bounce up and over the keeper which gave us a half time lead. Civil's looked frustrated and a bit annoyed that they'd conceded and that they were being outplayed when we kept the ball on the deck. We went out for the 2nd half buoyed by having the lead & seeing their frustration and we defended well with the hill and wind against us. I stayed as close to my goal as possible after what happened a couple of weeks ago but apart from a few saves (including one which bobbled right in front of me) I wasn't overly troubled. We actually had a few good chances even thought we were playing uphill and into the wind but we couldn't get a 2nd goal even though we had a good few chances. Civil Service gave us a couple of minor warnings but I did bring on Isaac for Jordan to freshen things up a bit on the right hand side of the midfield. We ended up deservedly winning the first game and in my post match team talk after the first game I wanted to keep the guys on their toes and up for the second match as in a double header 1 match completed is only half the job done.
2nd match began and we lost the toss so we had to play uphill in the 1st half but we did pick up an injury midway through the half which meant a quick reshuffle with me coming out of goal & a gk switch as the evergreen Karl pulled up with an injury. So John Ewens switched to the centre of the defence with me going as the left centre back and in the 1st half we got lucky a good couple of times as Civil's did get in behind us from the wide positions, I felt a bit rusty but part of that was due to not expecting to get on that early. Originally I had a plan of switching gk's at full time of the 1st match but I felt for consistency's sake i'd keep myself in goal and keep the same side out that finished the previous match but as plans will be plans will go awry. Karl's injury had meant a reshuffle but we also lost Henock during the 2nd match to injury, he'd been in the wars a bit so we had another reshuffle to do with Manny dropping into centre midfield and Jordan coming back on and going up top alongside Andrew to rekindle that partnership.
We conceded a goal which turned out to be the decisive goal in the 2nd half of the second match which was a diagonal ball over the top which was frustratingly out of my reach as I tried to head it clear and even with Callum covering their guy got in behind us from our wide left and scored what looked like a scuffed effort that bounced in past our gk and left us with about 10 minutes to find a reply. There was one negative of the match with an awful challenge on Isaac Penza from from a guy at least twice his size which I wasn't happy about as he went in 2 footed and could have really hurt Isaac, the Civil's player saw a deserved yellow and from what our ref told me post match he could have seen red. In this second game I must honestly say that Civil Service did deserve the win and even our ref afterwards said that to me, especially considering Civil's hit the bar a couple of times and I think hit the post too, but Jordan was unlucky himself not to draw us level after hitting the post in the 2nd half of the second game.
Full time came and as disappointed as we were to only get 1 win the important thing is that we got a crucial 3 points on our quest for survival, to a man I once again couldn't fault the effort put forth by the guys, especially in both games, they were played in a great spirit. We've got another double header coming up and a Tuesday game 3 days later so it's time for us to roll our sleeves up, put the work in and MAKE OURSELVES AVAILABLE as much as we can.
I'm Straight Shootin' LJA & that's my take on the match
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