A short trip to Cottonmill Lane was the venue for the match vs 4th St Albans and 1st Impeesa returned with a victory to ensure they remained in a strong position in the Cub football league. Despite a depleted team the boys produced an excellent all round team performance. This season we have now had 7 different players who have taken a turn in goal with Charlie and Joshua the latest to pick up the gloves. It certainly says a lot about the team ethos we have that they have all been happy to do this for the team.

The early stages were fairly close with both teams struggling  a little with the muddy and bumpy pitch. However, Joshua was unlucky with a volley from Jack’s cross and Jack himself saw an excellent shot rebound off the crossbar. A highlight for me of the first half was one particular moment where Tom took a high ball under control with great precision and with the 2nd touch played through Joshua which is a very difficult action to master but he did it superbly.

The opening goal was scored from Ben inside the area and soon after the lead was doubled as Jack’s long shot found the corner of the goal. The defensive trio of Callum, James & Ronan were excellent in their tackling and restricting the 4th to a few half chances. Charlie was composed in goal and was rarely troubled after the initial few minutes.

A very buoyant team took to the pitch in the 2nd half and continued to exert huge pressure on the 4th defence and goal. Jack hit the post twice (I think) and had a shot blocked on the goal line before eventually scoring his 2nd and the final 5th goal of the game before the whistle.

Before that goal Ronan scored from a corner after Jack’s effort was saved and James capped an accomplished defensive performance with a long range strike for the 4th.

The team continued to play some good football with the link up play between Tom, Ben and Jack looking threatening on many occasions. Other notable chances included an effort from Tom which went narrowly wide and Charlie whose goal bound shot was blocked by 2 defenders. Again the defensive trio worked incredibly hard to ensure that the 4th were restricted to few chances. Like Charlie in the first half Joshua looked composed in goal and was rarely troubled apart from a couple of free kicks.

After handshakes all round the boys were very happy and excited to know that they were now top of the league……the hard part will be to ensure that they can  remain there……

As usual MOM was a very difficult choice and sometimes it seems unfair to award as all 8 contributed to the victory. However on balance it went to Callum who never missed a tackle all match and whose distribution of the ball from defence to his team mates was excellent.