January 2011 Match Reports

Sunday 23rd January 2011

League, Trenham Drive

Banter Central FC 6 - 1 Surrey Valley
Wommy (2), Hughes (2), Brownie (2)

Banter: Doc; Cling (Bom, 46), Tino, Vidic (Dancer, 65); Ridders, Fintan, Wilkes (Gillardino, 60), Hughes, Baird; Wommy, Brownie

After going a goal down in the first half, Banter came back to seal a confident win in style. When friend of Banter, Lee Williamson, carried the ball down the left, Cling managed to slide tackle the ball off his opponent and out for a goal kick. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the referee it was given as a foul. Having half cleared the free kick, Surrey Valley took advantage of the second ball and fired in to go a goal ahead. Having had a couple of shots cleared and an overhead kick blocked as Banter froze in the area, it was a goal that had been coming and a cheap one to give away.

The home side tightened their grip after this and worked together to create openings and pass the ball well throughout the side. It became a disciplined performance, where a stingy defence combined with a quick thinking attack to carve apart their opponents. Several headers from corners went begging, Tino and Wommy having good chances to equalise. Kid Baird fired across the face of goal having beaten his marker down the left and it was a chance that would’ve been an easy conversion for someone and not the sort of chance that would be wasted thereafter.

Salley’s best chance to double their lead was squandered when Vidic made a good tackle inside the area and his opponent continued on before throwing himself down when the ball got away from him. It was a shameful piece of simulation that made even his team-mates cringe and Cling didn’t quite give him a pat on his back for his efforts.

Ridders’ tracking and marking to help out the defence had been much needed in the opening half an hour, whilst he was getting little space to operate going forward. Continuing to probe away, he did find space and used it well, firing in a low cross to Wommy, who set Brownie for a shot which he couldn’t connect with properly. Wommy reacted quickest to the loose ball and smashed in a deserved equaliser as Banter got some good fortune in the penalty area. It was Banter’s 200th goal of all time.

With half time looming, it looked like it would be safer to see the half out and regroup for the second forty-five, but throwing men forward at set pieces and given space and freedom, Banter took advantage and continued to attack. Hughes ghosted into the box like he does so well and fired in with his left to give Banter the advantage going into the break.

Boma came on to replace Cling for the second half, as Banter continued to move the ball around well and control the play in midfield. Brownie’s movement had been difficult to handle and so it proved when he latched onto a through pass and tucked his shot into the bottom corner with confidence.

Wommy grabbed a fourth goal within minutes to put the game to bed, chasing a ball through on goal, he cut his shot across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner in similar fashion to his strike partner. Wilkes was replaced by Gill, immediately following the goal. He joined Fintan in the heart of the midfield, who continued where he’d left off from last week with a dominant display, anchoring the midfield.

The goals appeared to be on some sort of rotation policy and so the cycle fell to Hughes next, who tucked away his 13th of the season with a left footed drive, which took a slight deflection, following a good run forward.

A bit of showboating began to set in as well, with Fintan nutmegging a midfield opponent, Boma seen sending his marker the wrong way with a 'Cruyff turn' and Dancer smashing away a high cross first time on the volley when he came on to replace Vidic.

Gill had a good opportunity to score from a difficult chance when he slid in on a Baird cross, but the ball was just a stretch too far as he toed it wide. Wommy could’ve had his hat trick when he shot from an acute angle and Hughes had an arguably stronger chance for his third, but chose to unselfishly lay the ball off for Brownie to fire into the bottom corner and round off a 6-1 win.

Man of the match: Rob 'Fintan' Stewart. Second verse, same as the first. Little more to say than was said last week, another fantastic performance doing everything right from the middle and in a rich vein of form. It means the beard cannot come off until you give up this award. Top, top win. Well done. It was a performance that oozed confidence and one that saw us keep a good shape as well as remain solid for almost the entirety. Soft goal and though it wasn’t a free kick in the first place, we can't keep going to sleep like that in the area.There was an arguable problem at the beginning of the season that not enough players were in any kind form. In fact, I believe we were seeing a collective of below par performances as well as the possibility of complacency. Since then, there has been a turn around. The Christmas break, if anything, appears to have benefited us. Not to say that we can now show up and assume a good performance and a win, far from it, but one noticeable difference is the effort. Training isn’t the be all and end all, but it seems to make sense that since the turn of the year, we managed to get 22 people to turn up to an inter club match, 16 at the following training session and 18 this past Thursday. High attendance doesn’t guarantee much either, but there’s a push for places. There’s no exact science to any of this, but I think when we put the effort in we can really see the rewards. So what went well? Movement off the ball and collecting it from one another was superb, covering for one another and the all important “sprint the first 5-10 seconds” to get into position gives us a much more solid foundation and makes us difficult to break down. The movement up front has given us great reward and that’s when we do and don’t have the ball. We are also mixing our goals up, which is great. We’ve continually seen our wide players beat their man and get to the line, it just needs a willing recipient/diversion in the area and we’ve had those in numbers recently. After three terrific performances, there would have to be a negative to be discussed. Perhaps just a point of interest or a theory at least, but of Banter’s last five games, the club have won four. Great stat and a testament to everyone involved. But lets be pessimistic for a moment. In the first, Madras had a bare 11 and were without their regular goalkeeper. Having lost to Barracuda the following game, in November, we came back after Christmas to defeat a Carlton side who’d played no kind of match for 64 days. Kurdish had not played competitively all season and Surrey Valley hadn’t trained or played since November. What a downer to put on things, right? Whilst all victories were comprehensive and beating what’s put in front of you is all that is required, it’ll perhaps not let us get too carried away with ourselves. There’s too many games to go for all that. What it means
  is, the above is a load of nonsense if we carry on winning, but entirely worth noting if we lose two from our next three.Barracuda this Sunday… As mentioned above, they were the last side to turn us over. We created plenty of chances against them, but they gave us a tough game all over the pitch and made things very difficult. This was not helped by one big hangover following celebratory drinks the night previous. This stat also might not be a coincidence either. Two more minor points: make sure you always bring money with you. To settle up on Sunday, I had to borrow from some of the team. Bring a towel, shower at the ground and come inside for a drink with me. We’ll end up playing at Duppas Hill again if we don’t. I’ll be having a word with them about food and what could be done to provide something or buy, but failing this I’m sure Brownie would nip down to Papa John’s and come back with some pizzas.Another thanks for all your efforts so far, in particular since we've returned in 2011. I can't stress how much we need to keep the momentum going though and not stand and admire what's happened so far. Lets keep the unbeaten run going.