A GREAT START

Subs

• Powell for Williams

• Evans for P.Barber

Well what a great performance to kick off a new season with.  We have had a difficult pre season in the sense that it has taken us up until last week to know which players we were going to sign and what our squad would be.  There have been several changes to the squad from last season and ideally we would have had longer to let the lads gel, but such is life and we had to get on with it. 

The losses of Carlos, Sonny and mainly Rob had rocked our preparations slightly as they would have been in our plans for this season.  The departures of Lewis, Dan and Niall on top of that meant that our squad size had been cut dramatically from 16+ to around 13.  We even signed big Matt Morton in what turned out to be the shortest ever transfer as he left before even playing a league game.

The additions of Matt Barber from Maypole, Mark Williams from Marston Green, Matt Doyle from Sheldon Colts and Alex Mytton from Sheldon Little league meant we had done well in the transfer market and I felt we had found more than suitable replacements to take our team forward a step this season.

The pre seasons friendlies against Premiership Leafield, Knowle Eagles and our own under 13s offered us stiff competition.  We managed to take positives from all those games. The main one for me being that we scored a lot of goals and created a lot more chances than we did last season.

So on to the 1st game.  Knowle Dragons away would be a tough test as not only were they a premier league side last season but they had an influx of new players from Smithswood FC.  The game was a great one for our new signing Matt Barber as it meant he was making his debut for us against his old team.

We started the game really brightly and our new look midfield were in control of the game.  New captain Henry Abbott was getting a lot of the ball and Matt Barber was running rings around their full back.  Graham and Paul looked very lively and we deserved an early goal.  Before it came the Dragons keeper had made 3 top saves in the first 10 minutes.  Graham twice and then Paul all had good chances to score only to see the keeper deny us.

Finally we broke through.  A quick throw in from James found Henry in a lot of space.  Henners played a defence splitting pass for Graham to burst through and put us 1-0 ahead.

We continued to dominate and but for a few “interesting” decisions from the ref and particularly their linesman we would have been further ahead. 

Our defence was looking very solid to start with.  Every attack from the Dragons was dealt with and Ryan was coming out and kicking well.  Mikey Cardall had a great 1st half in particular.  On two or three occasions he showed coolness at the back when others may have panicked to snuff out any danger.

Our main threat in going forward was coming from the link up between James, Matt B and Graham down the left hand side.  As we continued to go forward Henners broke through and was brought down for a blatant penalty, only for the referee to decide it was outside the area.  Graham and Paul continued to have chances and finally Graham made it 2-0 when again he broke through on goal after great work from Matt Barber and a measured though ball.

Dragons got back into the game somewhat luckily as Deano had put in a great defensive block only for the ball to run back to the Dragons player to fire it into the net.2-1.

On the stroke of half time Graham completed his hat trick as once again he latched on to through ball.  This time from Mikey and Graham gave us the 2-goal cushion we had deserved.

The 2nd half saw the Dragons come at us more and it was a much stiffer test for our back four.  Scott in particular had a great 2nd half and Deano and James were as solid as ever.  Alex and Henners were still winning tackles in midfield.  Knowle did get a goal to make it 3-2.  The introduction of CJ seemed to settle our team down again as he began to put his tackles in the way only CJ can.

We were a constant threat on the break and Graham, Paul and Matt B all had chances to kill the game off.  Graham got his 4th goal after more good work from Mikey and Henners.  This should have been enough but poor defending on a corner aloud the Dragons back into it again.  10 mins to go and 4-3.

Graham them scored a fantastic left foot shot from distance only for the linesman to amazingly rule it out for offside. (Very strange indeed).

We defended properly in the final minutes and deserved our win at the final whistle.  It was disappointing that the result didn’t emphasise our dominance but pleasing, as this was a game we wouldn’t have managed to win last season.

If we can consistently maintain this level of performance it will be a good season for the Ravens.

Steve