Goals - Own goal, Liam Angell
Starting lineup –
Chris Innerd
Liam Angell
Jo Sibal
David Szabo
Stephen Dodd
Alex Laugharne
Callum Mayfield
Pete Snell
Ash Farrell
Andrew Williams
Jordan Mills
Subs –
Gavin Henry
Rico Boyce
Carlos Gordon
Following an important win in our mid-week fixture on Tuesday and an impressive performance in last week’s 2s game, it was important that we kept the momentum going and picked up another result in our battle to avoid the drop. Our opponents this week were Old Actonians, who are sitting second in the league, making this a challenging game on paper.
Nevertheless, we fielded a strong side, with the majority of last week’s team taking to the field and some able replacements coming in to fill the gaps. The game started well, with both teams aiming to get the ball down and play. However, we settled more quickly and were soon playing some nice stuff, using a combination of width and quick breaks to threaten their goal more than once. Our attacking intent paid off mid-way through the first half, with the ball being well worked out from the back and a break emerging down the right hand side. The ball eventually came to Pete Snell who fired in a dangerous ball across the box. Despite no IBIS players getting on the end of it, their centre back contrived to shin his clearance over their keeper and into far corner of the goal in true comedy own goal style, putting us into the lead, although very much with the run of play up until that point.
We soon followed this up with a second. A sustained period of attacking play resulted in a corner from the left. Jordan played a great ball right into the heart of the box and captain Liam rose highest, or at least got there first, to power home a header from six yards out and get his name on the scoresheet from the first time in a while, possibly years, no one was really sure or bothered (I’m sure he can tell you exactly how long it’s been). The important thing was that we’d given ourselves some breathing space.
The second half was scrappier than the first had been, with the opposition increasingly pushing forward as they attempted to reduce the deficit, while we were more content to defend our lead and try and hit them on the counter. We kept it tight at the back and reduced them to a few speculative efforts from outside the box. As we entered the final 15 minutes, the game became more stretched, but they failed to take their chances when they arrived, mostly due to some excellent work by Chris between the sticks. A couple of sharp saves at his near post, were followed up by a full stretch tip around the far post, from a decent curling effort. Although we spent the latter part of the game defending we succeeded in closing it out and securing the 3 points, taking off the bottom of the league. With several games in hand over the teams around us we now have a great chance of survival and also have our destiny in our own hands, so let’s make it happen.
Match report by Callum Mayfield
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