Knobs 3 Saints 1

A big squad was selected for the game against the Saints who had apparently not won all year and being a friendly, it gave Dave the manager an opportunity to give some of his fringe players a starting berth.  Unfortunately Saints only had 9 men at the start so we gave them left-back Dave and new player Jono.

After a minute’s silence for the fallen, we kicked off and it was quite competitive and scrappy with little happening.  The pitch had been churned up from the weather which made good passing football difficult.  I think Dan Looney had a speculative shot from a very tight angle before they took a lead from a Jono volley, which left a sour taste in the mouth. It was an extremely well taken finish, like a hooked sideways volley.  He may also have had another shot that was stopped by Tony C.  Despite falling confidence, he look assured for the majority of the game, dominating his penalty area when he needed to.  We pulled a goal back after some ping-pong in their box.  We think it was a shot from Greg that eventually went in off a Saints goalkeeper.  The introduction of Gavin late in the second half saw KNOBS take the lead after his surging run in the box led to a penalty.  As per usual, Bully tucked it away with relative ease.

In the second half, we looked untroubled throughout and had plenty of chances.  Jono (who had now swapped sides) had 2 or 3 decent chances but alas he could not find the accuracy that saw him score against us.  Greg also had a couple of good chances and at times some lovely football was played.  Our third goal came when Gavin’s 20 yard thunderbolt was saved by their keeper but from the corner, Bully’s cross was met superbly by Paul who put a thumping header into the back of the net.  They had a free-kick at the end that was close to being a penalty but other than that, not much happened apart from a few chances that were spurned by our attackers.

Looking across the park, Richard played solidly at the back alongside both Tony and Chairman Al.  Brendan put in a good shift for both teams…in fact he had a headed chance saved by Tony in the second half.  James was very competitive in the middle and he is certainly a good option there for when opposition teams do not have a big lump up front.  Chris Cox worked hard as always and Greg was always an outlet out wide.  Paul is an excellent team player, always telling people where he’s going to put it or where he wants it but a lot of the time he doesn’t get it.  Lee was always a winning runner but alas the killer ball never found him either.

Overall, it is always nice to get a win and I’m sure Dave was happy but he can comment on the game in the blog.

STARTING XI – Tony C, Chairman Al, Tony K (and his friendly mouse), Richard, Brendan Wren, Dan, James, Bully, Chris Cox, Paul and Lee.  Subs: Greg, Jono and Gavin.