Men's 3rd XI Vs Leicester Westleigh 3

Match Report - South Nottm 3’s vs Leics Westleigh 3’s.

Capt Stuart “Grozzy” Croston reporting.

Another early match saw 2nd in the league South welcome 3rd placed Leicester Westleigh to The Banks.  7 changes to the squad from last week's mauling of Belper led to some disjointed play in the early skirmishes - a fortunate finish from a tight angle following a PC save from keeper Alex Heron saw the visitors take the lead, breaching the solid back 4 of Tom Cross, James Brydon,  Ben Walker and Craig Lawson - which was broken up as Brydon’s suspect hammy ended his game following the goal.  0-1. Sub James Murgett took over left mid duties, Harry Strutt moved to the vacant defensive position and the evergreen Gary Pickering (looking a little greener than usual thanks to enjoying the England match a little too much the night before) moving into the middle of the park with Adam Sharpie Sharpe, supported on the right by Sam McNeil. 
Ringing the changes led to South looking a little shaky as the team attempted to gel and get used to their new positions.. The visitors grew in confidence, moving the ball well across the park using their mix of youth and experience to pull South from pillar to post.  Captain Grozzy urged everyone to play to their strengths and not try to force the match, this saw a concerted effort from all, which was shortly followed by a number of gilt edged chances for striker Elliot “Ellz” Dixon as South turned to a more direct style of play to counter the high press of LWHC.  More and more chances came along and South finally found the net when a typical Sharpie driving run through the centre of the park saw the ball find Grozzy at the top of the D who delicately diverted the pass to Ellz to finish neatly on the reverse past an onrushing keeper. 1-1. 
Half Time and a subtle change was requested from Ben W to push Harry further into midfield to try to play the game further up the pitch. 

The bare 11 men of South started the second half well, but a loose tackle led to the visitors earning a PC - a lack lustre “drag(?) flick” wrong footed keeper Alex who was expecting a much harder shot saw the ball drop below his right stick and plop across the line. 1-2.

This really buoyed LWHC and they could smell blood. They pushed on and threw the kitchen sink at South, but South’s wily old heads saw expansive passing and movement   A lightning fast break out of defence had Ben W picking out Grozzy on the halfway line, who drove down the right, squared to Gary P on the 25, Grozzy carried on his run to meet the ball at the back stick for a trademark finish. 2-2. 
A body blow to LWHC’s momentum, the visitors went again, but another break saw Ellz chase down to the baseline, pull the ball back to strike partner Grozzy on the p-spot who slapped the ball high and hard over the keeper but the last defender took the ball in the guts to award South a P Flick. The massed supporters from SNHC Ladies cheered on Skipper Grozzy who dispatched the flick “top bins”. 3-2.

With 8 minutes on the clock, the match descended into an end to end encounter, an attack from South was broken down the D, but a high pressing Harry S tackled the centre back trying to play out, the loose ball sat up for Grozzy to pounce on and top a reverse past the diving keeper to make it 4-2 to South.  A last minute Westleigh PC was frantically kept out by the full on attitude of the South back line who were adamant that no more goals would be conceded today!

Not the most polished performance, but a great result nonetheless; the bare 11 dug deep again to secure the 3 points and secure 2nd place for another week. 

Many thanks to Danny & Will for keeping us all in check; great work guys, thank you.