Herts Senior County Division One
Saturday 20th August 2016 Bushey Sports Club Reserves 2 Hinton 2 Hinton began their league campaign with an away game at the same ground we had visited only a week before in our final pre-season friendly. Having played against Bushey’s first team many times over the years and having mixed success against them last season, their reserves were somewhat of an unknown quantity. Their pitch is undoubtedly one of the best in the Herts County league and manager Mick Clarke was hopeful that the possession football seen in most of the pre-season games could be replicated today. We started with a 4-4-2 diamond formation, with Reece Grundy stepping in for regular first team keeper Lewis Pontin and Joe Longworth, who played a key role in our title winning side five years ago, being named among a strong set of substitutes. Bushey kicked the game off in sunny conditions and the game started at a frantic pace. It was clear from the outset that our opponents aimed to play passing football out from defence and were also quite an athletic side. Pressure from the strikers Bartlett and Langley did force a few mistakes and allowed us to press higher up the pitch. The first twenty five minutes were disappointing from our point of view, as Bushey enjoyed slightly more possession and began to create some half chances, while we were restricted to long range efforts and were not retaining the ball well enough. After Puchalla failed to control the ball in his own half, their lively number nine almost managed to run through on goal but was thwarted by covering defenders and Naathen made a very important challenge in the box on a separate occasion when Bushey’s centre midfielder drove towards goal unchallenged. During the last twenty minutes of the first half Hinton began to shorten their passing game and started to look far more effective. The playing conditions became increasingly difficult to deal with, as the rain came down heavily, but we began to gain more control. Silveira and Lemoudni were having a real battle in the centre of midfield and won their fair share of 50/50 challenges, which allowed us to carve out some opportunities. Our best opportunity of the half fell to Bartlett, after incisive passing from defence to attack and neat play between Spackman and Langley, set him through on goal, but frustratingly he could only guide the ball wide of the left hand post, with the keeper beaten. Langley picked up some useful positions in the attacking third, but opted to shoot early when he possibly could have ran at the Bushey defence. McGowan delivered a couple of pinpoint corners, but we were unable to capitalise on these and Collier fizzed in a few crosses that narrowly evaded the onrushing forwards. Half time: Bushey Sports Club Reserves 0 Hinton 0 After a fairly even first half where we had ended in the ascendancy, Hinton came out unrecognisable in the first twenty five minutes of the second half. Bushey had dealt fairly well with the strong winds they were up against in the first 45 minutes, but we began to struggle with this early on. We did have a penalty shout a couple of minutes in when Langley burst into the box past their captain and he appeared to make contact with him during a clumsy challenge but nothing was given. After that, we seemed to lose our shape and desire a little, as Bushey began to pass the ball around us without too much resistance and found space in attacking areas. The goal kicks from Grundy were holding up in the air and their centre midfielders began to make advanced runs towards our defence, often without being picked up. Despite our opponents controlling possession, we were relatively comfortable defensively until a long ball was pumped downfield from their keeper and allowed to bounce by Naathen when he should have headed it, and their centre midfielder rounded Grundy. Fortunately he guided a weak left footed attempt towards goal and Grundy was able to hack it clear for a corner. The deadlock was broken though when Hinton conceded a soft corner following a thrown in deep inside our own half and Bushey’s number 9 rose unchallenged at the back stick and headed home. It was hoped that this goal would shock Hinton into life but instead it had the opposite effect and Bushey continued to control the game and looked to add a second. A couple of important challenges from Puchalla prevented our opponents from racing through on goal and Collier was battling well against an energetic winger. Despite this, the second goal did follow soon after in fairly comical circumstances. Bushey’s right back was allowed to progress down the field and when the ball was played back to him on the edge of the area, somehow three Bushey players were allowed to run through the static defence unchallenged. Burford raised the flag but the referee overruled him correctly, as the right back was definitely not offside when the ball was played. He then ran towards goal and rounded Grundy and the ball struck the post. Amazingly the player was afforded the time to let the ball bounce and tee up his team mate, who guided the ball high into the net, despite the desperate attempt from Clarke, who had charged back towards the goal line. Even a second Bushey goal had failed to bring us to life, as we continued to give possession away cheaply and were struggling to assert any pressure on their defence. Clarke had to be alert and made a good challenge on the centre midfielder, who had burst through again and Collier and their right back were booked following a blatant foul and a petulant kick out as a reaction. Manager Mick Clarke decided to replace McGowan with Longworth in a straight swap and Spackman with Jarrett, with Jarrett asked to play up front with Langley and Bartlett dropping into attacking midfield. For the final twenty minutes of the half, out of nowhere we suddenly appeared to find some form. We began to compete better physically and get the ball forward quickly and accurately, with Jarrett clearly becoming a nuisance for the Bushey defence. Silveira worked tirelessly throughout and he put was putting in an impressive performance in the middle of midfield in tricky circumstances. Longworth should have done better when the ball landed at his feet following a corner and he produced a weak finish which the keeper gathered easily. With around fifteen minutes remaining we pulled a goal back, as Longworth played a tremendous ball over the defence and into the path of Langley, who dragged the ball inside the defender and guided the ball expertly high into the net past the despairing dive of the keeper. After the goal, Collier began to charge forward and create problems on numerous occasions and after a fine run and pass, his low shot was thwarted by the Bushey keeper. Hinton did managed to level the game with around five minutes remaining when Puchalla found himself in an advanced position and his flick allowed Langley to round the keeper and set the ball for Jarrett, who rolled the ball calmly into the empty net. Following the equaliser the best chances to win the game came for Bushey, as twice the right midfielder found himself in good positions to score following hesitation from Collier, with him slicing wide on the first occasion and being denied well by Grundy on the second. Despite these scares, there were no further goals and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. Manager Mick Clarke was fairly unimpressed with a below par display but also pleased with the character shown to come back from two nil down to grab a point. After our opening game, we are aware of just how difficult division one will be this season and must up our performance levels considerably, starting with a game on Tuesday v AFC Hatfield. M.O.M. Tom Collier – Worked extremely hard to prevent Bushey from advancing down their right side and provided good attacking options for the team, also very unlucky not to score. Team: Grundy, Clarke ©, Puchalla, Naathen, Collier, Lemoudni, Silveira, McGowan (Longworth 60), Spackman (Jarrett 65), Bartlett, Langley. Unused subs: Burford, Whitehorn, Lettieri.
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AuthorPublished by Ollie Kettle. Archives
September 2017
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