Oaks Athletic 3 - 2 Linford Wanderers (Combined League Cup)

The Oaks are starting to show real self-belief, as they twice came from behind to win a match in which they were by far the better side.

I'm afraid I don't know the official name of this cup competition (it's probably something like the Dulux Dog Magnolia Challenge Cup), but it's basically the one where you can meet any team from the five divisions of the Thurrock Sunday League. The draw for the first round saw The Oaks pitted against Linford Wanderers, who are in our league this year and beat us 4-2 in the same competition 2 seasons ago.

Manager Milesy decided not to stick with the team that had played so well the previous week against Belhus Park, and instead chose to put the returning Rob and Eye-Ball back in and hand a starting spot to Kieran, who had really impressed the previous week when coming on as a sub. I'm sure everyone will agree that having Kieran available regularly will add an extra bit of class - even if it means our centre backs can't see much when he is playing with Gollum in the midfield.


The starting 11 for today's game was as follows:

Neil (GK)

Deano (RB) Rob (CB) Milly (CB) Eye-ball (LB)

Nathan (RM) Gollum (CM) Stu (CM) (c) Kieran (LM)

Al (ST) Sharpy (ST)

and this left Parker, Jimmy, Bill and Aaron starting on the bench.

The Oaks kicked-off the match, playing towards the flats in the lifting fog. It was a bright start, with The Oaks quickly settling into the slick passing game that is becoming a bit of a trademark. There was a really good balance to the side, with Nathan and Kieran linking up time and again with Al and Sharpy to provide a real attacking threat, whilst Stu and Gollum held their ground in the midfield, preventing the opposition from having any sustained posession. With the back four looking comfortable, and Neil obvioiusly having put the previous week behind him, there was really only one team that looked likely to win - and the only surprise was that The Oak went behind after 20 minutes.

On their first attacks of any note Linford got the ball into the heart of The Oaks penalty area, but when a good block from Rob was prevented from going behind by the arm of a Linford player on the ground, the injustice felt by the absence of any whistle from the referee was compounded by the fact that a Linford player was consequently able to fire the ball into the net to give his side an undeserved 1-0 lead.

The frustration caused by this horendous decision unsettled The Oaks, but composure was soon restored, and it wasn't long until the equaliser arrived. The referee was not having the best of games, and when Rob was barged off the ball in the opposition penalty area he decided that this offence was only worthy of an indirect free-kick! In hindsight we can't complain about the decision, as Nathan rolled the ball into Stu's path to calmy drill the ball into the bottom left hand corner and level the scores. The only person still slightly disappointed was Sharpy, who saw his chance of catching Al in the scoring chart snatched away (because of course he would have scored the penalty).

This score proved the catalyst for all out war on the Linford Wanderers goal; unfortunately the Linford keeper wasn't ready to throw in the towel, as he pulled out a string of quite remarkable saves to keep the score at 1-1 going in at half time.

The Oaks weren't able to start the second half in the dominating fashion they had displayed in the first, and Linford were able to get on the front foot. The home side were subsequently made to pay when some slack defending, and a failure to clear the ball on several consecutive occasions lead to the replacement winger getting on the end of a tame throw-in to slot in and put Linford 2-1 up.

The Oaks had shown in the first half that they were capable of creating genuine scoring chances from open play, but as always we were still very dangerous from set-pieces. It was from the tried and tested O'Kerin bullet throw that The Oaks equalised for the second time; Sharpy once again causing all sorts of problems in the box and finally converting with his rosy cheeks. 2-2.

2-2 soon turned to 3-2, as The Oaks took the lead for the first time. Linford's policy of launching it long in an attempt to capatilise on the rising sun back-fired as Neil confidently collect one such long ball, and whose quick distribution saw the ball find it's was through to Sharpy, who wasn't about to give the keeper more saving practise as he calmly slotted the ball into the corner.

The game was by no means over, and Linford pushed forward looking for an equaliser. It was all hands to the pumps, and some dogged defending plus some outstanding saves from Neil - including a fine reaction stop from a volley from about 8 yards - saw The Oaks over the line.

Well done to all for the first (and overdue) win of the season; now let's make it a habit. I hope those who didn't make it on this week feel like they contributed to the team effort. We've got a really strong squad, and if we have 15 players turning up every week those who do start will know they have to perform because Milesy will know he can replace anyone not pulling their weight with someone eager to impress.

Eye-Ball

Next Game : Sun 19th Oct - 10.30 KO Vs Kynoch Sports @Pegasus Club (another cup game)

Goal scoring chart: