City Life vs Sawston United Res 17/11/07
Lower Junior Cup Round 3
Did we want to stay in the cup for the money? Did we want to get knocked out to concentrate on the league? When you are on a winning run surely it’s important to keep it going? Many questions go through people’s minds in the lead up to a cup match but everyone likes the success that a cup run brings. This November Saturday afternoon was going to be a tough one. The opponents had overturned us 5-1 on the opening day of the season and were lying in 2nd place in the league. The thought was that the opening day result had shown the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the City Life team. Hopefully this was going to be different with solid defending, creative attacking and chances taken.
The formation was once again 4-5-1. The personnel were slightly different to last week with Coach Farrington choosing to make a couple of customary changes. In goal was once again Martin Fincham, following his anti-aging surgery. It made him look about 18. Amazing what a shave can do! There was one change in the back four with James S replacing Sam. The midfield five had one personnel change with Mike coming in for Wayne with Luke moving out to the right to accommodate the player/coach. Martin, once again late, was, once again, up front. The bench was looking strong with Dave, suffering from a dodgy plate of something, Rich, looking more and more like thunder as the game wore on, and Muz.
The game kicked off at the unusual hour of 1:45 just in case of extra time and penalties and with 15 minutes of the game left it looked like this was going to be a distinct possibility. City Life began kicking off towards their favoured first half end, The Kings Hedges End, in front of the usual few rugby posts, hedges and fences of a crowd, later to be joined once again by Ian’s Mum, ahhhhhhhh!
The first half was largely uneventful with the odd shot from Mike once again going somewhere near something but not the goal. The City Life boys were working hard if not producing much quality, the Sawston lads likewise. This was not matching the opening day rout and was proving to be a tough encounter. Half-time came and went with the odd jaffa cake being consumed. Their return earlier in the season had possibly contributed towards the current success of the team.
The second half started with much the same style as the first half although the City Life boys were starting to get the ball down and play a little more football. Lewis was once again having a sterling match at right back, in fact the whole of the back four looked very comfortable, ably assisted by a few good saves by the keeper. Ian was showing some skill and pace for the first time ever against his full back and it was a rare moment of skill which unlocked the tough Sawston defence.
Going into the last 15 minutes the prospect of extra-time was not really appealing to anyone although all that pre-season training meant that the boys in purple were certainly not going to shirk from the challenge. At that moment Tom picked the ball up in the left back position and started to run forward. He played a short ball inside to Matt who first touch played the ball on towards Ian. Tom had continued his run like a thoroughbred Derby winner down the left hand side at which point Ian got his dummy out again. This time not a moan at anyone, not even a kick out. He simply ran over the top of the ball allowing it through to Tom. The dummy was bought by two Sawston players who decided they were going to take it off Ian and off went Tom into the final furlong. Once level with the edge of the area the full back slowed, looked up and rolled a ball into the path of Martin who cut inside and finished with aplomb. When such composure was required the star striker was on hand to produce the finish.
For the rest of the game Sawston came at City Life but with no real quality or threat and game was won. A hard fought, satisfying 1-0 win. Back to the late 80s of watching Arsenal and their 1-0 victories. It had certainly been a grind but it’s all about the result. Onwards to the next round........who knows, a final?????? O yes, and Rich came on for 10 minutes!!
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