Although we came out as 3-1 winners, the man-of-the-match by far and away was Mark Wilberforce. If not for Wilber's heroics we could have been on the end of an embarrassing defeat to lower level opposition just before going into the more important FA Cup tie on Saturday.
We started well enough sharing equal possession with Ponte but after 13 minutes we were unable to clear the ball from the danger area leaving space for one of their players to slot into the bottom right hand corner leaving Wilber with no chance. We were quite ineffective from then on falling foul to the long ball over the top and some decent closing down play that allowed us little or no time on the ball. It was 25 minutes before Steve Lyons made had our first attempt on target but his header went straight to the keeper. More of the same followed and if it wasn't for Wilberforce's fantastic save just before half time, we would have been going in 2 down and to be fair, you could argue that Ponte well deserved it.
Gary and Phil obviously gave the boys a talking to at half time but again Wilberforce was forced into action in the first minute of the second half keeping out another goalbound effort. We started to get more of the ball from then on and Phillo was unlucky not to equalise with a thunderbolt after about 15 minutes. Gary made a double substitution bringing on Mark Barber for Jace Moody and Craig Hogg for Steve Lyons. These changes made an immediate impact with Hogg scoring with a no nonsense finish to equalise. A couple of minutes later and Tom Fleming burst through the defence to slot in our second. Ali Benson was a different man in the second half holding the ball up and working well with his new strike partner Hogg.
The pick of the goals was our third and Hogg's second with an imperious looping header right across their keeper after leaping like a lord at christmas at the right post to meet a cross from the left... ok, my metaphors aren't great but you get the idea!!! It was a cracking header and showed that Hogg can finish well.
Right up until the end Wilber was called upon to keep Ponte out and showed what a class act he is.
It was good to see Joe Danby come on as sub following his previous early exit at Thackley and he was briefly able to show that he is a much better player on his natural left side.
Another fraught and tense night for us travellers but the lads came good in the end and definitely deserved the win.
No comments:
Post a Comment