Good away win for the 2nds

On a late January fixture the chilly weather had briefly subsided and provided a nice sunny afternoon. This encouraged the visiting team to forego the usual warm up routines, choosing to create a circle and pass around the one ball that had been found in the bottom of someone’s bag, as the ball bag was running late with the last 3 members of the team, who arrived in the nick of time just before pushback!

The first half started with SV placing some surprisingly good pressure on Herne Bay’s defensive line creating some early chances in front of goal, which were well defended and SV found themselves unable to get on the score line. The game balanced out and Herne Bay were finding gaps in the SV defence, after several attacks defended by SV’s backline of Olly Sheldon, Adrain Gander and Alex Hodges, they finally broke through and managed to beat Ross Mackay, SV’s final line of defence, this resulted in SV conceding an early goal and going 0-1 down. As this was slightly against the run of play, rather than take the wind out their sails it just seemed to energise SV, with Tom Willson seeming to take this personally, firing off shots to the left and right of the goal, but seemingly confused as to which he was aiming with so many to choose from behind the goal!! However, a co-ordinated short corner routine, pushed out to the top, was slipped to Ben Tragett who took the shot on goal, which though saved by the keeper the ball bounced off his pads and landed in front of Tom Willson who clinically finished the job. 1-1.

The half time talk was short and sweet, lots of positive energy as we were playing well and doing all the things we were supposed to, hence repeat for the second half.

The second half was a different balance, SV started with great positivity, this resulted in some break away opportunities for the resident Dynamos, Alex Hodges and Jack Sheldon, who continued to push forwards again and again, with one such attack finding Chris Sheldon in front of goal, after receiving a pass across goal, placing it down the right side of a rapidly approaching keeper. SV 2-1. The next goal was a solo affair, with Chris Sheldon receiving the ball outside the D, driving towards the goal round the keeper and slotting it across the base line before the retreating defenders could stop it. SV 3-1. Not to be outdone, Alex Hodges took it upon himself to single handedly run the ball from an interception on SV’s 25 yard line all the way to the oppo’s D, passing 2 defenders and taking a shot at goal, which initially was saved by the keeper, but Alex slapped the rebound away, to make it 4-1.
With 10 minutes left of the game, SV took their eye off the ball and Herne Bay were able to press the SV defence once more, with their first attempt being flicked over the top of the goal, but finding the back of the net on the second, making the final score 4-2, a resounding win for SV 2s.

MoM: Alex Hodges for the 2’s solo goal of the season!

Goals: Tom Willson; Chris Sheldon (2); Alex Hodges.

Team: Ross Mackay, Olly Sheldon, Adrian Gander, Alex Hodges, Alastair Robinson, Tom Willson, Ben Tragett, Jack Sheldon, Andy Barr, Ed Hawes-Gatt, Chris Stille, Chris Sheldon.

Match Report by Chris Sheldon.

Next game is at home at 09:45am at SV Prep School vs Marden Russetts 6th Xl