Old Actonians 2 Civil Service 0
Saturday 19 September
What more could the Service ask for? Beautiful September afternoon, lush green grass on a flat pitch and the team in buoyant mood after a well earned point against one of the leagues more fancied teams the week before. Unfortunately that was as good as it got on a day when the Service never really clicked into gear and couldn’t reproduce some of the flowing football from the week before.
The game started at a quick pace, immediately highlighting Actonians wingers as the danger men, full backs Herrick and Alsford did their best to keep them quite but a few dangerous balls made it into the box early on but were largely cleaned up by the new centre back partnership of Kay and Peachey (who would have predicted that a month ago – perhaps its a sign of a midfielder reaching the latter days of his career, struggling with the pace in the middle as the weight starts to show) and keeper Curtis. On a narrow pitch it was difficult to maintain possession in a compact midfield and meant when wingers Myles and Gambin got the ball they had little space to work in. Both worked well though and a few balls made it into the box but unfortunately came to nothing.
Moment of the first half as far as the Service were concerned came when Kay broke from the back to slide a great through ball for Paddy putting him one on one with the keeper. Stretching for the ball Paddy couldn’t quite generate the power to force the ball through the keepers legs for what would have been a great goal. So that bought us to half time and despite and iffy performance all was to play for in the second half.
The service came out after the break with one change, the late Stocks who had been reduced to the bench replacing Gadge. Hopefully the trend of one late player a week ends soon. So Gadge off with Stocks going up front and Paddy dropping into midfield. Similarly the second half started at a good pace, difficult to hold onto the ball for both sides. It wasn’t long though before Actonians had their break and after a slight confusion the ball ended up dropping on the line where it looked like Peachey had the opportunity to clear but the ball wouldn’t fall for him and was bundled over the line.
Despite good running from Stocks and a good impact from subs Jones, who returned to the fold and looked as comfortable as ever , and Matt who had some good touches and retained possession well the Service failed to worry Actonians significantly and as the emphasis was on pushing forward an Actonian break lead to a well taken goal to effectively kill the game.
A bad afternoon all round but it must be remembered that performances in the previous two games were much better and every player on the Service side showed in periods that they had the beating of the opposition. Wilsonians away next week who are without a point and with a notoriously volatile back line it will be interesting to see at which point one of them attempts to chin the always innocent Stocks.
Curtis – 6. Probably had less to do than in his MOM performance the week before so could consider himself unlucky to end up conceding two.
Alsford – 6. Did his best to contain the lively winger and battled hard as always.
Kay – 7 and MOM. Did his best to lead from the back and created the side best chance from nothing. Very vocal on not liking the CB role but actions on the pitch suggest otherwise.
Peachey – 6. Solid at the back and it looked like the beginnings of a good partnership with Kay. Is he going to rise to the bait and hit the gym this week...?
Herrick – 6. Battled with Actonians tricky winger well and somehow always managed to get his body between him and the ball.
O Myles – 6 Dependable running and ratting all day, looked like he enjoyed the opportunity to exert more energy after last weeks stroll at CB.
Giggs – 6 Dependable performance in the middle, outlasted Gadge this week.
Gadge – 6 Did his best to create something in a tight midfield before withdrawl at half time.
A Myles – 6. Made good progress down the left, often beating his man but the final ball failed to hit home.
Gambin – 6 Great on the ball as always but seemed to struggle to get into the game.
Paddy – 7 Had the Services best chance and didn’t stop running all game, excellent tracking back from the lone striker position.
Subs:
Stocks – 7 Came on at half time and worked hard to rectify his lateness before the game. Definitely line of the day with “Tell me there’s a man on you C#nts” showing that there was no doubting his commitment to the cause.
Jones – 6 Looked good on the ball and got around the pitch well to help both attack and defence.
Matt – 6 Good debut, held onto the ball well upfront and at one point had 3 or 4 Actonians chasing shadows whilst he looked for a pass.
Nottsborough 1-0 Civil Service XI
12TH September, Saturday
Man of the Match: Peachey
On a warm sunny day the start of the season began, with high hopes for the season ahead with the Service needing a good start as well as a good performance, to give the side belief that they could compete with the championship winners from the season before.
With the heat being a factor it would be important for the players to keep dehydrated.
The game began and it was immediately clear that Notts preferred to attack down the left hand side as they had two natural left footed players. After about a quarter of an hour though the game became slower and the two teams were finding more and more space, with some good football on both sides being played. The Service worked a couple of set pieces and on one occasion from a corner on the right hand side a chance came with Gadge swinging the ball in it fell onto the head of Nick probably too well and Nick just headed over.
With the minutes ticking by and still no score the ball was won by Notts in their own half and played up to their left winger, “the cocky one”, with his first touch and on the half volley and Eddie by his side he let rip from an acute angle, the ball then flew into the other side of the net. I am still not sure whether this was meant, if it was it was a great finish.
The first half petered out with the service still very much in the game.
The second half begun slowly, and as in most matches each team has some control and in this game the first ten belonged to Nottsborough. Their hard tackling midfield player was winning the ball and then distributing it well setting the strikers on their way. In this space the Service were fortunate that the referee had his eye on the game as he disallowed a further goal from Nottsboro. After this the Civil Service started to get their feet on the ball and put some chances together. The chances Nottsborough were making were all down the left hand side which Peachey (in playing in an unaccustomed position) dealt with brilliantly.
Andrew shortly into the second made some changes and the game sparked into life when Ross and Paddy came on, they made an immediate impact. With chances being made but not taken, the best when Andy M turned and his shot was deflected the wrong side of the net. With no other chances made the final score finished at 1-0. An undeserved result but the only thing good is that Nottsborough are the reigning Champions so it does prove that The Service can mix with “the big boys”.
Match Stig
Civil Service 1st XI vs HAC 30/08/09
2-1 Victory
Goal scorers: Andy Myles and Bertie Morse Man of the Match: Simon Yates
A good performance and a good result were produced by the Civil Service on Saturday. With the opposition playing attacking football the big pitch provided the opportunity, with both teams spreading the play well.
Given the condition of the pitch the performance from all players was excellent because the pitch at the beginning of the match did not look like one as the ground had been used for a firework display the evening before and a number of the remains had strayed onto the pitch, anyway after sterling from young josh kellett the pitch was cleared to play on.
I thought Yatesy was the man of the match. By winning every ball in the air and not letting a single player past him. Even though he was centre back Yates contributed too many Civil Service attacks with his running with the ball and his vision to see and pick out team mates in a better position.
Even though Yatesy was awarded Man of the Match there were great performances from Ross at left back as well as a good performance from both debutants, George and Nick. The entire team though were in the running for the award because of everyone’s good performances.
The match kicked off and the game started by being quite open, so that meant chances for both teams if the game was going to stay like this. After many well defended set pieces HAC was awarded a corner from the right side. This cross was punched away strongly by the goalie for the day Ciaran McKenna which was collected well by Paddy on the edge of penalty area. With the ball at his feet for about two thirds of the pitch he let lose an almighty shot which was deflected onto the post by the opposing goalkeeper “Zlatan Ibrahimovic”. The ball was then smashed into the roof of the net by Andy Myles; this finish was inside the six yard area but at an acute angle. For a few seconds though the game against EBOG came into my mind, that was the game that he missed that sitter. For the rest of the half though the service were quiet but diligent with HAC scoring towards the end of the half which was tapped into the open net following Ciaran’s save.
The second half started brighter than the previous 45. With great passes being linked together by all the team, chances were getting produced but the big Swede between the sticks was always the favourite to win the ball. The service were winning the ball back after every possession loss which was the reason we scored our second goal.
With ten minutes to go the ref missed a decision but it was in favour of the Service for once, and it was when Ross out jumped all the players in the area to concede a corner, but the referee failed to see that the ball had come off the service player and awarded a goal kick to the service, which resulted in an immediate attack, confusion was caused in the HAC penalty box with the HAC keeper “ Zlat” thinking he was an outfield player again because as he was not standing in his goal. Even though this sounds like it was the keepers fault it was made well by Andy Myles because he won the ball back to pass it onto bertie who passed the ball into the open net. Zlatan then remembered he didn’t play for Barca but he did play for HAC. (Bad luck!!!)
In conclusion the team performance was sound, and I think we will do well this coming season.
Match Stig
Civil Service 1st Team Match Review
Chipstead 3 Civil Service 1
Pre Season Friendly
01/08/09
Man of the Match: Gadge
Scorer; Paddy
Another journey into deepest South London to the same venue as the week before, saw a very good first half performance from the service against a strong team capped with a fine free kick from Paddy, with the goalkeeper on the opposing team having no chance of getting anywhere near it. With the half time whistle coming closer Chipstead scored a quick fire double, with a debatable second goal with the scorer pushing Eddie Saunders at centre back out of the way, he then placed the ball past Fash into the bottom corner.
The second half started with no changes as Civil Service could only put out eleven players, with 4 calls offs on Saturday morning, come on lads, as there were no changes the debutants on show Joe and Alex both had solid games with Joe performing well on the left wing and Alex at the back of defence.
Chipstead scored another debatable goal and were indeed seen to take all there chances, when we were missing ours.
With the assistant referee calling offside wrongly time after time, service continued to press with Joe running rings around the big lump at right back, left back and at centre half. But when the defence did win the ball Gadge showed why he was given Man of the Match. He won every tackle that he went for by being hard, brave and timing it to perfection. He also skilled up players for fun and made it look so easy. The decision for the Man of the Match though was hard as Peachey, Joe and the majority of the defence had an absolute cracker.
With Fash damaging a ligament in his knee and having to come off it was clear from the sidelines that he would face considerable competition for the No. 1 shirt from the replacement, given we had no sub it had to come from management and so on came the super sub. Some say he has a tattoo of his face on his face and that his second best friend is a cape buffalo, all we know is, he is called Andrew Wilson. A quick introduction with a thunderous kick and a number of good catches in difficult situations there is now an answer to the dodgy England keeper answer.
Aside from that though a 3-1 defeat is not all bad, it was seen as another step in the preparation for the team for the season ahead, as Chipstead would beat the majority of the teams in our league this year. The next game is Tuesday week so the 1st team will hope for the first win of the campaign in a difficult match against (TUESDAY WEEKS TEAM).
Match Stig
CSFC