Castle on Leighton Win
Hi.
Getting in early while everything is still clear in my mind!
A 2-0 win at Garden Walk for us yesterday against a resilient strong Leighton team. We started quite bright but some wayward passing especially in the final third meant that our visitors were always a threat on the counter attack. We should have gone ahead when a set play worked very well for Jack Bradshaw to head the ball goal-bound for Craig Hammond to divert, with the ball just going off target. I had made several changes to the starting line-up. Two enforced due to banns for Ryan Wharton and Chris Watters. George Powell and Reece Dobson replacing them and one more change bringing in Spyros Mentis to replace Rob Nightingale. Also a change in formation was used. A 4-3-3 in favour of our usual 4-4-2. My reason for this was that as much as I rate Reece, he is a forward not a midfielder! Losing Chris we felt the formation would suit the players more. I'm not a lover of chopping and changing formations and the fact that we only went through it Thursday showed in my opinion. Our midfield never really got to grips with it and our 2 forward thinking midfielders I feel got themselves too high too early! Sometimes leaving us vulnerable to the quick break. I thought George Powell considering he is only 18 and was playing Step 5 football only a month ago was tremendous.
Back to the game, We had a slice of good fortune when Leighton's right back got himself sent off towards the end of the first half, both fouls were on Reece Dobson. But while the score line stayed at 0-0 a resolute Leighton team were holding on and doing so very well. Half time came and it was good to get the lads in and give them some instructions which to be fair to them they took on board and implemented them to the letter. We tried to stretch them by getting our wide forwards as wide as we could and tried to get them on the ball to them on a one v one situation. The lads that had to do it were very unselfish in their play. I also introduced Gary Hart to the fold and changed back to our familiar 4-4-2. We were going to score for sure and just a simple bit of play and an excellent cross from Kaan Fehmi saw Craig Hammond notch! I was especially pleased for Craig because he is the type of lad that needs to score to keep his confidence up! As I've said before he has had to be very patient due to suspensions and now he has got this first one I'm hopeful many more will follow now!!
To finish Kaan calmly slotted home a free kick in the area after their goalkeeper had picked the ball up illegally.
The score line could and probably should have been more but 3 victories in a row now is extremely pleasing and the fact that both our nearest rivals in the league lost made for a very satisfying weekend!!
Enjoy your weekend also.
SC
