Stanford Town 1 - 0 Aveley Academicals

Dale was understandably annoyed to hear one of our opposition make an off-hand comment about keeping an eye on their stuff with these “Aveley scummers” in town.  The reality was that it was Stanford who thieved from us, as they walked away with three points which rightfully belonged to The Accies.

Two weeks ago Sharpy couldn’t hide his anger and feeling of betrayal as we let him down in almost every way.  The thick fog which covered the pitch at the start of the game was almost a sign of the low point we had reached after three straight defeats, but by the end of the game the skies had cleared and with Sharpy beaming with pride and admiration, it seemed that there was still hope that the future would be bright.

A key factor in this turnaround was that Sharpy had almost a full squad to choose from, and although Harry declared himself unfit to start (standing upright was proving enough of a challenge) Sharpy still had 14 other players from which to pick his starting eleven.  A few noticeable changes saw Mo make his debut alongside Alec in midfield, Nick start in the holding role and Eye-Ball making a very rare appearance at centre half.  James drew the short straw of playing at left back, but he was more than prepared to take one for the team.

Subs: Craig, Harry, Jake, Scott

There is always an argument against playing teams in your league during pre-season, but in hindsight being thrashed 8-3 by Stanford prior to the season starting was the best thing that could have happened.  They turned up thinking it would be a walkover, and we were determined to restore some pride.  By the end of the first half there was no doubt that Stanford knew what we were really about, as we created half a dozen chances to their one long range effort which was well saved, diving to his right, by Foggy.

Conditions were not easy with the fog taking its time to clear and the ground being wet underfoot.  Add to this the meagre dimensions of the pitch, and this resulted in both teams struggling to get the ball through to their strikers without it skidding on to the keepers.  However, Dale’s pace and determination was wreaking havoc for Stanford’s sluggish back line, but unfortunately he couldn’t find the net with the ease he has in previous weeks, with the angles and opposition goalkeeper proving equal to his efforts.  Possibly his best chance was a rare header from a cross by Liam, but it became obvious why this is not a route by which he usually scores as the ball sailed well wide.

Throughout the rest of the side it seemed that Sharpy had got the formation and personnel spot on.  Nick had said he was struggling for fitness, in which case patrolling across the pitch in front of the back four was exactly what he needed.  He did the job superbly as time and again he cut out the danger posed by their attacking midfielders before giving the ball to Mo and Blakey, who brought a calmness and composure to our midfield which gave Ryan, Liam and Dale time to get themselves in position to receive the ball and get us on the attack.  The only thing missing in the first half was a goal, and we could only hope that we could continue where we left off in the second half and would not be punished for failing to create and take more opportunities during our period of dominance.

Stanford aren’t top of the league and title favourites for nothing, and it was obvious that they would pose more a threat at some point.  However, our defensive unit was functioning superbly, with Liam and James keeping the wingers very quiet and sweeping round to provide cover for Rob and Eye-Ball as required.

There was a few raised eyebrows when Sharpy named Eye-Ball at centre half, which is understandable as the gaffa and Rob would be the only two members of the squad to have seen him play in that position.  In the ten years Eye-Ball has been at the club, there has always been a succession of quality options at centre half to partner Robin: Johnny Horwood; Deano; Milly; Niki; Nathan; Tapsell; Brian; Alex; Blakey; Rob; Johnny; Foggy and Chappers are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head.  Opportunities to play in the middle have therefore been few and far between, but Sharpy’s trust appeared to have been vindicated as the Stanford strikers were feeding on scraps, and Foggy’s participation (following the one save in the first half) was restricted to claiming high balls,snaffling any ball played into the box and watching one header sail wide of his left hand post.  However, it could be argued that one mistake by Eye-Ball was the equivalent of leaving the door unlocked and enabling Stanford to steal the points.  He raced across to cover Luke and temporarily lost all control of his hands, resulting in the ball being lifted into them when it would otherwise have gone over his head.  Foggy got a hand to the penalty kick, but it was struck too hard and low for him to stop the ball painfully entering our net: 1-0.

I’ve criticised our reaction to going behind before, but the response on this occasion was nothing short of superb.  Not only in terms of the support and encouragement offered to Eye-Ball – who was devastated to have undone all our efforts – but in the way we kept going at Stanford right to the end.  Sharpy changed the personnel and the formation, as Nick, Blakey and Luke were replaced by Craig (also making his debut), Jake and Harry in a 4-4-2 formation with Ryan partnering his brother up top.  We remained competitive to the end, but Sharpy did admit that maybe the starting formation suited us better (but unless you change it how will you ever know) and we weren’t able to break down our opposition and get the reward we deserved.

The scoreline may be the most tangible result, but the impact of the performance should not be underestimated.  Our confidence and belief in what we can achieve in this league would have been given a massive boost, but that confidence is born out of looking around and seeing that you’ve got the full squad there – so let’s make every effort to make sure this becomes the norm rather than the exception.

MoTM was pretty much a clean sweep for new boy Mo, whose engine, great close control and ability to create time and space fits perfectly into the plan Sharpy has for turning us into the ultimate ticka-tacka team.  DoTD was a much tougher decision, with Rob being a front runner following an impression of something between and penguin and a salmon as he completely misjudged the bouncing ball (a rare sight indeed).  H was sitting in a close second for being fit for nothing more than running the line – and then getting that wrong by standing in the wrong half – before bursting into an unassailable lead by voting for James who he claimed “couldn’t kick the ball for toffee”.  You’d think he’d have the best view of the left back from running the line, but the effects of whatever he’d been smoking the previous night obviously hadn’t worn off.

Next week we have the bottom team in the league – so let’s make sure we fill our boots and get back to winning ways.

Eye-Ball

Next game: Sunday 8^th November away @ Blackshots v Stifford Social

Goal scoring chart