8th March 2008 - AFC Valour 3 - 5 East Peckham Juniors
Starting Lineup
Nichols |
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Tom Revell |
Meager |
Ryder |
Parsons |
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Vince (1) |
Scott |
Philpott |
Blundell (3) |
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Jennings (1) |
Jagleman |
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Substitutes Used
Tony Revell > Martin Parsons, Jordan Willett > Mark Philpott, Dean Hayes > Liam Jennings
Report
Having been awarded 3 points, Valour found themselves 5 points clear, making this top of the table clash a must win match for the Juniors. However, they couldn’t have got off to a worse start, finding themselves behind within the first 5 minutes, after a long ball over the top was cooly slotted home by the Valour striker past the on-rushing Nichols. Slowly the Juniors began to find their feet and it was not long before a brilliant passing move was finished with aplomb by Jennings from the edge of the box, finding the keeper’s bottom right hand corner. The game was played at a frenetic pace and it looked as if Valour would fail to use the strong wind to their advantage, until the very end of the first half. The striker broke free down the Valour left, and cut the ball back into the six yard box, in the mêlée that ensued, the Valour player stabbed the ball goal wards, Nichols got a hand to the shot, and Tom Revell got a foot to the ball on the line, but neither touch was strong enough to keep the ball from crossing the line and sending the teams into the break with Valour leading 2-1.Juniors were forced into a change after Parsons picked up a knock and was replaced by Tony Revell. After strong words at half time, Juniors knew that nothing less than a win was acceptable, but again Valour came out the stronger team and kept pressing, and it paid off. A diagonal ball into the box from the Valour left winger caused confusion in the Juniors defence and left the Valour midfielder free to place his shot past Nichols. Further changes were made to the Juniors team with the injured Philpott and Jennings making way for Willett and Hayes, with Vince pushing into centre midfield to accommodate Willett on the wing. This change seemed to change the game as Vince regularly forced their midfield into errors, chasing every lost cause.
With around 25 minutes to go, and Juniors still trailing 3-1, Dave Blundell picked the ball up on the left just outside the Valour area, beat a couple of men and hit an unstoppable shot goal wards which went straight through the Valour keeper. Juniors were pressing for the equaliser which eventually came when Blundell again picked the ball up on the edge of the box, and hit a tame shot towards the keeper, who proceeded to let the ball run through both his hands and legs, much to the disbelief of his teammates. Instantly their heads dropped and Juniors sensed they could win the match, pushing forward, looking for the winner, however this left gaps at the back. As Valour cleared an East Peckham attack, their left winger broke free, cut inside the tireless Ollie Scott but shot tamely straight at Nichols who gratefully fell on the ball.
Moving into the last 10 minutes, Juniors were getting more on top, and finally the break through came, another neat passing move sent Vince clear of the Valour defence and he calmly slotted home, the power on the shot carrying the ball home despite the keeper getting a hand to the ball. Juniors knew that time was on their side and with the solid centre back pairing of Ryder and Meager stopping the usually potent Valour strikeforce from getting any more shots on goal, Juniors were looking more likely to extend their league than Valour were to finding an equaliser.
With only 5 minutes to go Blundell completed the comeback, finishing to the keeper’s left from inside the box, and moving Juniors back to within 2 points of the league leaders, but still with 4 games in hand. EPFC!