Thrapston Town 6 Ferrers Colts 1. Danny Smith
Scores!
Thrapston’s quality football this season should have
proved too much for Ferrers Colts from the whistle if the
formbook was anything to go by. But it was pretty obvious
from the off that either Thrapston had spent too much time
studying their own form or Colts had read a different book.
It’s a sign of the success the team has had this season
when after 4 minute of play with the score at 0-0 I started
to ponder at what was going wrong. Jack Rawcliffe must have
been thinking the same when his hard work set up the ever-present
Paul Spicker for the first goal a minitue later.
With Colts holding Thrapston in check until the second half
of the game at the last meeting, the underdogs clearly were
playing for a win, first to the ball every time, sharper communication
and good movement at every chance put Thrapston to shame and
the away teams hard work soon paid off. With Thrapston defence
and midfield players standing watching in the 18 yard box
Colts took their chance to get back in the game with a soft
goal lobbed over keeper Andy Bird
Jack’s persistence continued on the left wing and despite
various missed opportunities Reece Evans made no mistake picking
up from Jack to shoot across goal out of reach of the Keeper
clipping the inside of the far post to make it 2-1 on 23 minutes
with the last goal of the first half.
Despite the half time team talk stressing the importance
of keeping the ball on the floor the first 5 minutes of the
second half were more like football tennis with the ball never
on the floor for more than a second or two.
Colts continued to keep the pressure on and only Andy Birds
quick thinking stopped the away team getting back into the
game numerous times as he dived at the forwards feet to smoother
the ball and halt the danger or dashed off his line to clear
back up the field past his beaten back four.
Poor passing, lack of positional awareness and a general
air of tiredness meant Thrapston continued to make hard work
of swinging the game around but swing it they did as the quality
started to come together in the second half with Jack picking
up a through ball from Carlos after 50 minutes to make it
3-1.
It would be a pat on the back for Colts to say they played
the “off side trap” well but they didn’t
need to as at times we had 3 and even 4 players all well off
side either not watching play or slow to come back on side
after.
Danny Smith finally got himself on the score sheet, much to
the enjoyment of players and parents alike, with his first
TTTFC goal by hammering the ball in to the back of the net
from the penalty spot after Carlos was floored in the 18 yards
box. Two minutes later Kyle Fox (MOM) working the wing well
squeezed a ball through the Colts Centre Backs to leave Haydn
Jons to finish one on one with the keeper.
With Jack and Reece overlapping well at times Jack took his
tally to two for the day with another JR lob well out of reach
of the keeper to take the final score to 6-1
A bit critical perhaps? It’s meant to be, unless we
can address the shortfalls next season will not be a pleasant
experience.
|
