The squad is really creaking at the seams, as was demonstrated by the fact we had to rely on Lee making an excuse to his heavily pregnant partner about us being short unless he got our (crippled) captain to the game, H battling through ninety minutes on one leg, and a rare appearance from Mir. That was just to field a bare eleven, with only Eye-Ball in reserve who is strictly on flag holding duties until after the Bath Half Marathon on 12th March.
With the carefree approach of 3-5-2 working so well in the second half last week, Foggy took charge and decided to see if the Accies could start where they had left of:
In general defence was on top, but there were a couple of scares as United Ockendon looked to exploit the space down the flanks which was inevitable with the formation we were playing, despite Liam and James working their socks off to both get forward to support Mir and Terry in attack, and to get back and help out defensively. Ockendon were denied by a fine save from Lewis with his legs when the attacker had time to bring the ball down and pick his spot from 8 yards. They did manage to get the ball in the net, but by this time it was Eye-Ball with the key intervention when the cross to the unmarked man in the middle came before Rob had managed to get goal-side.
Whilst the 3-5-2 does result in us riding our luck a bit in defence, it does appear to help with getting more players supporting in attack, and we created a few chances of our own in the first half. A couple fell to Mir, with Blakey’s flick on catching him by surprise with the resulting header skewing wide, and a shot from a tight angle which went into the side netting. A good interchange on the left led to Mir playing in Liam, but the defender did well to get across and cover. The best chance was created by Lee, who sprinted to the bye-line before whipping in a knee high cross which was more-or-less met by James at the back post. I say more-or-less, but with this being heavily weight to ‘less’ as his attempted to direct the ball goal-wards turned into a sliced clearance which would have been great if we were shooting the other way.
Foggy seemed to be enjoying being in charge, but his attempt to change the formation at half time, with the aid of some cones, was met with dissenting tones. Obviously the crew did not share their captain’s ambitions and they opted for more of the same, which is exactly what they got. There was good defending (including a vital and well timed sliding tackle from Luke just inside the area), the odd chance – Mir and Terry both attacked a near post header from James’s cross which was well blocked by the defender – and neither keeper was tested enough.
In the collision between Mir, Terry and the defender, Mir picked up a foot injury which meant Eye-Ball had to come on. This resulted in Luke moving to the left and Liam going up top with Eye-Ball slotting into the back three. With Liam providing a change in dynamic upfront we were able to get the Ockendon defence on the back foot and create some more openings, but our finishing just wasn’t good enough to grab the three points late on as we had last time these two sides met.
So we had to settle for a draw, one point and being happy with a much improved performance from last week. Lee was awarded MoTM for a lung bursting display in the middle, where he worked his socks off to make up for H’s missing right leg. To be fair to H, he did remarkably well to get through the 90 and picked up some votes as well. There was also recognition for Blakey, who was rock solid at the back, where we looked a lot more organised thanks to his commanding presence. DoTD went to Terry, who travelled 200 miles to Cardiff on Saturday only to find that the girl he was meeting no longer wanted to come out to play. Which just goes to show you should stick to playing with the kids who live on your street!
Eye-Ball
Goal scoring chart
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