Southgate County 6 - 1 Egbertians

Southgate County 6 – 1 Egbertians
(Nelson 2, Sayers 2, Danso, Bellinger)

Southgate faced an Egbertians side who had lost both their league games so far this season. We were looking to bounce back from our defeat at Queen Mary last week and thankfully had a full squad to choose from which included a couple of drop downs from the first team.

We had the worst possible start and fell behind after 2 minutes. We failed to clear the ball in the right back position but got away with it when Egbertians over-hit a pass through to Boris in goal. However Boris rolled the ball out to left back; there were 3 individual mistakes that were calamitous; the end result being a simple finish for an Egbertians striker. To our credit we didn’t let the early goal affect us and worked our way back into the game. We played our best passing football of the season and looked really dangerous attacking down both flanks. We built a sustained period of pressure with 3 or 4 corners in a row but narrowly failed to capitalise from any of them. However the equaliser came on 20 minutes from a deep free kick; the ball was cleared to Michael Coehurst 25 yards from goal, he fired in a shot that ricocheted to Jon Bellinger on the edge of the box, he swivelled and guided a left foot shot into the bottom corner of the goal. We probably edged the rest of the half but couldn’t add to our lead. Half time and it was level at 1-1.

We made a couple of changes at half time with Luke Hall and Declan O’Leary coming on. The first 10 minutes of the second half was fairly even but we started to take control and created a couple of chances including a close range effort from Jermaine Nelson that he couldn’t keep down. We persevered though and took the lead after 60 minutes. A goal kick from Boris was brilliantly and bravely flicked on by Bradley Sayers sending Jermaine Nelson through on goal; he out-sprinted the chasing defender and brilliantly fired in to the roof of the net. Five minutes later we made it 3-1 with our best goal of the day. James Lamont worked the ball to Luke Hall on the right; he glided past a couple of challenges before playing in Jermaine Nelson on the edge of the box; Jermaine played the ball to his left to Bradley Sayers who smashed the ball into the bottom corner. It was a brilliant move and great team goal. We were now playing with confidence and it was only another 5 minutes before we got our fourth. A great quick throw from James Lamont played in both Bradley Sayers and Jermaine Nelson; Jermaine took the ball though and fired low and hard into the net for 4-1. We made another couple of changes with 20 minutes to go; utilising the rolling subs system. On 80 minutes we scored a fifth; Bradley Sayers hounded the Egbertians defenders to steal the ball and again finished well. We got a little sloppy in the last 10 minutes but that was to be expected in some ways; people were trying to do too much but at 5-1 is the time to try. Jermaine missed a very good chance for his hat-trick as did Bradley; he tried a dink with his favoured left foot when a right foot place was the better option. However we did get a sixth in the 90th minute when good work from Luke Hall saw the ball played across to Robert Danso who calmly placed the ball into the bottom corner; a lovely finish to end a brilliant second half performance.

We played well, the first half was almost equally as good as the second but our superior fitness told and our work rate in that first half allowed us the room to really play in the second. We did really well not to let the early goal affect us too much. There were lots of excellent performances; obviously the goals from Bradley Sayers and Jermaine Nelson stand out but the work rate of James and Ben Thirgood in the middle was just as important but Man of the Match was Michael Coehurst who was brilliant throughout; solid in defence and a real weapon going forward, once again making penetrating run after run. It’s worth pointing out that having 13 men and being able to make regular changes massively helped us in this game; just like the first game of the season, but tellingly unlike game-week 2…

Team; Boris, Lamont, Coehurst, O’Brien, Bellinger, Mensah, Sayers, Thirgood J, Thirgood B, Danso, Nelson, Hall, O’Leary.