Blythe Hill v Clifton FC
This Saturdays fixture took us away to fellow promotion contenders Blythe hill. Spirits were high in the changing room before the game with Rick walking around flexing his muscles and Hoops dressing like the manikin from the Adidas shop! Best line though was from Reevsey..."Skip u always look the bollocks!!" Cheers mate 😉
With a decent size changing room with good showers and 2 rads roaring our expectations were high for the quality of the pitch!....Oh how wrong could we have been..a small mud pit was what we faced.
Good warm up and good to see Stotty back getting involved and showing off some quality face control!! Stretches done (although Alberto didn't want to go on the ground as he didn't want to get dirty...Didn't work out in the long run!!)
Game kicked off and think we started the better team although they always looked dangerous on the long ball. Hoops and Len hooked up nice and Rick and Andy were keeping the fullbacks busy! Had a few chances through Hoops and Len but didn't score but was only a matter of time. Soon Hoops split the defence with a great through ball and Len finished with a cheeky chip 1-0 all made from a great save at our end by Reevsey. It was at this stage the pitch started to really cut up so Stu got a rope from the van and tied it round Rick as we were worried we could loose the wee man down a footprint!!
Weather then took a nasty turn with whipping wind feeding ice ball bearings! It's was then we knew we had them with crystal of "Let's call it off Ref! " But in our normal style we Leaked a cheap goal from a free kick which put their tails up. We pushed on and we're still the best team and nearly went 2-1 after a shot from myself only to be blocked by a defender.
Halftime and 1-1.
Few quick words and we were back out. This half started better than the first and we really started to boss the game. Soon it was 2-1 from a pass from Dunc to Andy who pushed on and hit a 2014-15 type strike straight passed their keeper. We were winning first balls and second ,although Dunc made a great last ditch tackle to keep us in front. .he'd been waiting all game to level someone he even started the game by passing them the ball in hope to get one in early! As conditions of the pitch got worse they started to struggle and we moved the ball quick and nicely and we're cutting them apart.
Scott whipped and great low corner in and looked to be going in until Len poached it just before the line..no way was he giving that one up with golden boot on the line!! Few changes were made and we should have opened the gap..I had a header just go over Scott smashed a drive only to hit one of their players straight in the face..amongst other chances. Alberto after staying clean in the warmup now looked like a northern miner from the 80s! ! And unfortunate for him had the only mild mishap of the game when he missed controlled the ball!!
Time ticking on we bossed it...but in a mad moment a pen was given against the Skip! Still don't know what it was for..they scored and undeservedly were back in the game. We see the game out and got another massive 3 points!!
Tough writeup this week as u boys stuck to the task battled well and did the business. Not too many comedy moments but great attitude! Same next week boys.
Come on you Clifton 🍊⚽
