Gateway 2 - 0 Melville Mavericks

After a rather challenging week or so for myself it has turned out to be a rather special weekend. Things are on the up in almost all departments and after a disastrous first half of the season we have seen improvements to the squad result in a well deserved victory.

Incoming signings for this week:

Raul: About 5ft tall, well built and a shot like a rocket.
Gustaf: Massive Swedish lad who has been brought in so we can kick/throw the ball at him as often as possible.
Tam: Another Thai player, who isn't afraid to get stuck in and make a challenge or head the ball clear. Technically impressive as well.

With three new players since the squad properly played last it seemed a bit mix and match again trying to fit things together. 14 turned up to play and with the rolling subs concept that meant that players could quickly switch and take a break.

The captain decided that since we hadn't won any of our previous games and generally got overrun in the middle of the park that we should just simply clog up the central areas and stop the Mavericks from being able to play. 4-5-1 sounded sensible so we went for the Championship Manager like formation of 3-6-1. Yes, you read that right. 3 at the back with a pair of defensive midfielders sitting on top of that and then a line of 4 with only 1 up top. On paper it all looked a bit silly and in practice it was probably even worse.

The original tactic was to put the big lad up front and use him as an outlet but given that bigger players tend not to display the best mobility it didn't last long. The game quickly got stuck in the middle of the park with no real outlet and we reverted back to switching myself up front so I could chase down anything that came out of the midfield. It was pretty much evens for most of the half until we got a free kick out on the right with a chance to swing the ball into the box. I opted for my usual spot near the far post but the captain quickly decided he'd rather take up that position so as Michael was lining up the cross, I made a little v-cutting run from the far post, out to the penalty spot and towards the 6 yard box. The ball flighted perfectly over the defender in front of me and by some sort of miracle I was able to out jump the bigger centre half picking me up. Unfortunately the ball was just behind me stopping the header going on target but the flick on the ball took it away from everyone and it landed perfectly at the far post for the captain to knock into the empty net. 1-0 and we were competing at long last.

Minutes later I managed to scramble onto a bit of a lot cause and with no real options to pass the ball to I tried to hold up the play. The two centre halves bundled the ball away from me but not far enough as Gustaf was able to collect the loose ball and slide it through to Raul. For all the world it looked like he'd taken it far too wide but he unleashed a thunderbolt low across the goal and the keeper could only watch as we went 2 up.

Going in two to the good is something new to us so we decided we'd try to keep playing like in the first half. Twice I managed to waste opportunities, one a half chance on the turn that the keeper stopped and then a through ball that I really should have burst the net with I tried to slide around the keeper who got the slightest of touches to divert it around the post. A rather frustrating day in front of the sticks for me again but thankfully our defenders were playing brilliantly. Peter and Phil made some great challenges as the game ran down but inevitably chances did fall for the Mavericks strikers. The closest they came was a shot that cannoned back off the crossbar when the striker had pretty much the whole goal to hit following a great first save from our keeper Chris.

Thankfully things ended 2-0 with the Mavericks putting in a few poor tackles towards the end which their captain didn't seem best pleased about given that the game was played in very good spirits. Words were exchanged with the referee as well who the Mavericks felt had a poor game given that he turned down both their penalty appeals and quite rightly so in my opinion.

A word on the state of the pitches. Awful. The side of the pitch near the tree line was cut up so badly that the ball wasn't running on the surface so any forward ball had to be played through the air otherwise you had to go back and get it when it became stuck in the mud. They badly need to rotate the playing surfaces and start using the clean ones that haven't been played on yet this season. Can't understand why that decision hasn't been made yet.

Roll on next week and more of the good weather!