Coggeshall Town 0 City 8

Eastern Junior Alliance: 7th March 2010

It was an early start for the boys this week with a 10.30am kick off at Coggeshall. All 16 boys were available with Tom Sapsford on the bench after playing for QPR in a trial game the day before.

We lined up as follows :
BRANDON, YOUNGS, MARTIN, SPENCER (c), GUY, FLACK, HOBSON, BROWN, DRISCOLL, DARLING, POOLEY. : SUBS ; WRIGHT, WYMAN, HOWARD, NICHOLSON, SAPSFORD.

Any thoughts that the early kick-off might affect the lads was soon put to rest. In the 3rd minute we should have had the lead. Good work wide between FLACK and HOBSON saw DARLING's shot appear to cross the line but this was waved away by the referee. The reaction by the players told a different story, but we didn't let this put us off our game.

Just 5 mins later HOBSON's deep corner found BROWN who headed home. A second came a couple of minutes later when YOUNGS pass sent DARLING clear and his cross was knocked down by POOLEY for BROWN to volley home from the edge of the box. In the 14th minute it was three, DRISCOLL found FLACK who in turn spread the play wide for DARLING and his cross cum shot found its way into the net.

We nearly scored again when another HOBSON corner saw GUY header just wide. The game then settled down as we had totally played Coggeshall off the park. They rotated their players to try and get into the game, but we were in control. If anything over confidence was the problem. The back four of SPENCER, GUY, MARTIN and YOUNGS protected goalie BRANDON so much that he didn't have a shot to save in the whole 40 mins.

H/T Coggeshall 0 City 3

We made one change at the break HOWARD replacing HOBSON. The talk at the break was about not conceding and try to replicate the opening 20 minutes of the game.

A minute into the half and we scored our fourth. MARTIN's pass down the wing found DARLING who beat his marker and put in a decent cross that was turned into his own net by a defender.

In the 56th minute SAPSFORD replaced GUY at centre half and five minutes later NICHOLSON came on for FLACK. A 63rd minute corner by DRISCOLL saw the ball find DARLING and he cooly lobbed home number five. YOUNGS then came off for WYMAN and WRIGHT on for BRANDON in goal.

The goal of the game was next to follow when WYMAN found BROWN and he played a fantastic pass to NICHOLSON that saw him beat his marker and send in a great cross for POOLEY to finish on the volley. FLACK immediately replaced goalscorer POOLEY for the last ten minutes. FLACK's first contribution was to send in a corner that wasn't cleared and BROWN smashed it home to complete a fabulous hat-trick and put us seven up.

There was still time for one more SPENCER's header finding WYMAN who found FLACK who set up NICHOLSON who finished into the roof of the net.

F/T Coggeshall 0 City 8

A great performance by the boys and the scoreline tells the story. A superb team effort with Jacob Brown outstanding in central midfield not just for his goals but overall workrate throughout the match.

Next week the long trip to Leiston and we have to start all over again, with preparation in our two training sessions on Wednesday night and Saturday morning.

Finally, thanks to Coggeshall Town FC for their superb hospitality.

Cambridge City Boys Section