Rattlesden 19th September 2009

This was our second game of the season and our first at home. Fortress Dellwood!!

The pitch was in surprisingly good condition considering the lack of rain.

The squad for today was-
Ollie S in goal, Matty G, Jack and Connor in defence, Freddie, Matty H, Charlie B, Keiran and Ollie Mac in midfield, Dash and Damien up front,with Curtis, Alex, Cammy and Kyle on the bench.

Rattlesden had a good win in their opening game and had performed very well against the Hawks and Ransommes. So we were expecting a tough game.
From the kick off most of the early play took place in the middle of the pitch. With less than 3 minutes on the clock Rattlesden attacked and shot from inside our penalty area. Ollie thought the it was going wide and left it, only to see it sneak inside the post!! So much for fortress Dellwood!!! 0-1
We restarted and began playing with more purpose. we pushed forward and began to pressure the Rattlesden defence. With 5 minutes gone Matty H pounced on a loose ball and fired home to level the score 1-1.
Less than a minute later we took the lead with a powerful strike from Ollie Mac down the right. 2-1.
10 minutes in Damien extended our lead to make it 3-1.
We continued to push forward and kept most of the play in the Rattlesden half. However some very sloppy defending when, either Connor or Jack could have cleared the ball but left it for each other, let the striker through to make it 3-2. this was a pity as Matty G, Jack and Connor had played well for and were looking assured at the back. Both Matty and Connor had put some great passes through and started moves from the back. One of which had led to a goal.
Dash restored our two goal lead on 20 minutes to make the half time score 4-2.
All we needed to do was keep a clean sheet in the second half and we had won the game.
Rattlesden pushed forward but a great performace from Cammy, Jack and Kyle kept them out of our area.
We pushed forward and again put them under pressure. Freddie managed to squeeze the ball past their keeper in a crowded area to make it 5-2.
Soon after Charlie B hit a long range shot inside the post to make it 6-2.
Curtis finished off the scoring with another shot from outside the box to make it 7-2.
Rattlesden almost pulled on back when the broke into our box and unfortunately our defence retreated giving them space to shoot. Luckily Ollie was on hand to pull off a superb save.

The game ended 7-2. Another 3 points for us which took us to the top of the league!! Even though there's only been two games played we can enjoy being at the top!!

Overall this was a much improved performance from last week. The pitch allowed a better use of the ball and we managed to get some nice moves going all over the pitch. Freddie and Curtis worked well as a team on the left, whilst Keiran and Ollie M combined on the left. The pleasing thing was that even after substitutions the good play continued with Matty H and Alex fitting in well. Alex and Damien combined very well down the right in the second half. A lovely series of one two's between them led to one of our goals.
Man of the match went to Cameron Dwelley. Even though he only played in the second half, he took the brunt of the Rattlesden attacks and dealt with them superbly. A great performance.

We were really pleased that every boy performed well today and put in a good team performance. Seven goals with seven different scorers!! A good day all round.