ROCKETS 6 - 1 ELLESMERE PORT RANGERS
Our fifth straight win in the Chester Shield means we continue to top the Group and puts us one step closer to a semi-final later in the season...
We talked last night and this morning about how Ellesmere Port had improved their squad with 3 new players (with no ID cards!) so that we would need to stand up and win our individual battles but then relax on the ball and play our football around them. Getting this balance is really hard as its tempting on a poor pitch to get into a battle - which was frankly the only way we could have lost the game.
All the boys in the first 25 minutes executed the plan to 100% perfection. We stood up to the first few minutes of hard tackles and then we got the ball down and created angles, diagonals and one on one situations that our opposition couldn't cope with. With Zac protecting the middle, Rory holding a high line up top and Xander giving their left back a nightmare we went into the lead after Rory belted home from 10 yards.
We introduced Harry who straight away was working on his balance of pass or dribble which is great to see. Coming on for Rory on the left wing Harry then scored from the right wing, with a pot shot which crept in off the near post for a 2-0 score-line.
Just before the break EP put together a decent move which we failed to clear and they hit a hard shot to the bottom corner which Hugo somehow managed to tip around the post. We knew this was going to be crucial moment, potentially match winning, going into half time.
We spoke about how EP would come at us like a train in the second half. A combination of EP bringing their best player out of goal and us not quite getting used to our new shape and line-up resulted in us getting bogged down for 10 minutes.
We then broke and Xander put us 3-0 up before we conceded following a mix up between defence and midfield when we just needed to put the ball out of play.
With Zac back on, Xander was able to break again and he shot hard and low and even managed to break the net to put us 4-1 up.
In the final 10 minutes we created lots of chances against a tiring opposition whose heads had gone down and we scored again from a brilliant leap and guided header from Austin, for a deserved goal. Rory grabbed his second from close range and we were also awarded a penalty as EP's goalie from the first half decided to pick up the ball! Unfortunately Harry did a 'John Terry' on the terrible surface and the keeper pulled off a good save...
Overall the score is perhaps a little flattering but on the other hand we created a lot of chances we didn't convert. Our defence was rock solid throughout.
MOTM went to Xander as in the first period he was unplayable with great decision making between individual or passing attacks - which is what Paul and I had asked for!
The same praise about decision making can also be given to Rory and Harry. Its really pleasing to see we are coming through this transition period ahead of bigger pitches in 18 months time. To have tacklers, natural passers, exciting runners and those who can do both will give us a great advantage when we move to 9-side.
Well done to everyone.
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