| Match Report |
Match report - South Nottm 3’s vs Mansfield 5’s
Skipper Stuart “Grozzy” Croston reporting:
A particularly wet and windy Bingham welcomed bottom of the table Mansfield 5’s who had travelled with a few 4’s players added to their ranks due to the latest round of COVID Tier 3 restrictions taking their toll across Nottinghamshire and the league!
South welcomed young Daniel Recaldin and his dad, club chairman Simon for their 3’s debuts plus a few returning players who had missed the game of the season vs NTU the previous week.
Following a lively team talk from the skipper and other senior players urging everyone to maintain the high level of performance from the previous week and not expect a walk in the park vs the lowest ranked side in the league.
The game started with a bang, with the first attack, skipper Grozzy received the ball on the left of the pitch and placed a slide rule pass to midfielder Alex Butler who connected crisply with a powerful reverse shot from the left side of the D that the keeper didn’t known much about as the ball went through him and plonked over the line. 1-0!
Almost straight from the restart, South pressed hard and forced a good stop from the Mansfield keeper, only for the rebound to find Grozzy at the top of the D who drove a shot high, just missing the top right corner. Close! The next attack led to Souths 1st short corner in 2 matches, a lovely drag out by Elliot “Ellz” Dixon was stopped by Alex B and skipper Grozzy found the bottom corner with a well placed drag flick. 2-0!
The play was all South, the back line of Arthur Gilroy-Davis, Leon Pinkney, Craig Lawson and last weeks “tower of strength” Brian Blackmore had little to do apart from feed the hungry attack through the Midfield with Richard Butler, Hamza Adamjee, goalscorer Alex B and returning enigma Adam Sharpe all finding holes in the Mansfield defence, creating multiple opportunities for the forwards to feed off.. This tireless endeavour led to Vice Captain Elliot “Ellz” Dixon delivering a sweet, bouncing bomb of a pass that Mansfield’s defenders couldn’t deal with, finding Grozzy, ghosting in at the back stick to touch home from close range. 3-0.
The first round of subs were marshalled by Gary Pickering who was our bench man for the day (thanks Gary), saw Daniel Recaldin, Craig Bingham and Alex Jones join the fray, to immediate effect as Alex J drove through like a hot knife through butter, finding Grozzy again who finished a nice move with a reverse strike low into the far corner. 4-0!
A few more chances came and went as Mansfield’s keeper started to find his feet and make some great saves, but the pressure continued and Grozzy bagged his fourth with a powerful low drive under the diving keeper following yet another well worked South attack. 5-0!
The attacks continued and a fine strike from Alex B at the top of the D saw him bag his second and the teams went in at halftime with the score 6-0 to the home side.
The team talk was a simple “more of the same please” affair with an added desire to keep a clean sheet!
As the second half began, it was clear that Mansfield had reorganised themselves with a more experienced back line and made it much harder to find the simple pass, even so, South continued to press all the way to the final whistle, through some of the worst weather imaginable- gale force winds coupled to driving rain saw the quality drop a little, as everyone including players, umpires and spectators got a proper drenching! The Mansfield keeper rose to the occasion saving shot after shot becoming their man of the match in the process and managed to keep South at bay for a goalless 2nd half.
With a little more composure and finesse South may have seen a double digit score line, but we have to be happy with a convincing win and the three points! Final score 6-0.
As the only fixture in our division due to the local Tier 3 restrictions, this result sees us sitting nicely in 2nd place.
Let’s see what Boris has in store for us for the future and whether we will be continuing our season!
Many thanks to umpires Neil Batty and Andy Wallace for marshalling us so well in challenging conditions!
Thanks also to our dedicated supporters, including our “Coach” Olivia Wallace who gave us the confidence to try a few new ideas after our training session on Thursday, thanks Liv!
Thanks also to Eleanor Wallace for capturing the action and posting online already, cheers Nel!
My thumb hurts now, too much typing!
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