The Chopbacks welcomed Herstmonceux 2nds to William Parker today in the Coopers Construction Cup.
Neil Sutcliffe employed a new strategy with the team during training Tuesday & Thursday to attain a more pressured approach in order to prevent the opposition playing.
It was a gamble, however the gamble worked. Despite being short at the back (no reference to you Shaun Burton ?), the team followed the strategy perfectly and commanded the game.
Jack Bloomfield netted at the 8th minute from a Luke Darvill assist, only to score again 2 minutes later from a Ryan Fuller assist!
Shaun Burton played in Connor Easton for 3-0 upon the 12th minute.
Jack wasn’t finished and had a goal disallowed only a minute later.
The boys pressed on to the delight of their manager resulting in Ben Mershplaying a sublime ball in from 40 yards to be converted by Luke Darvill.
From the kick off, the ball was played through to Luke who played a delicious back heel through to set up another for Jack making it 5-0.
After a strong start to the game, Kai Rowse in a momentary lapse of concentration over committed and conceded a penalty. Herstmonceux calmly slotted home to get one back 21 minutes in.
As the management emphasised it was still 0-0 to them, order of the day was to continue to press.
34 mins in, SCA earn a free kick on the edge of the box, Connor Easton stepped up and scored a sublime goal with the ball curling up over the wall then dipping down and to the left of the top right corner, no keeper was ever going to save that.
Again the manager was urging the boys to push up and press, some quick interchanging of passing left Lee Finnigan slotting in a through ball to Jack Bloomfield for goal number 7 at 36 minutes.
38th minute, Connor Smith set up Jack Bloomfield to increase our lead to 8-1
At half time, the message from the manager was to be focused, expect a retort and keep pushing.
From the off again we pressed and dominated, this time with Kai Rowse making amends for his earlier mistake passing in an amazing ball from distance that begged to be scored………. And it was by Ryan Fuller who has scored 3 in 3 games!
From the restart the ball was played out to Ryan who set up Connor Easton to make it 10-1.
Again we pressed…….. 57 mins in, Lee Finnigan set up Luke Darvill for his second, the teams 11th.
Callum Homewood had the ball in the back of the net from a Tony Cook through ball but was ruled offside by the linesman.
Yet still we pressed…. 72 mins in, another goal from Connor Easton set up by Luke Darvill.
.
In a near mirror of the last goal, Lee Finnigan sets up Connor for number 13……. Yet still we pressed….
Finally, Lee Finnigan selflessly sets up Callum William Homewood for his 2nd (the first ruled off side) to finish the game 14-1.
For the team of course this was a good result with players ability coming to fruition with management strategy, but, it has to be given to Herstmonceux, they never gave up, never compilated and played with dignity to the final whistle.
They deserve our upmost respect for that and we wish them every success in their league for the rest of the season.
A special mention to the referee Mark Boyd who had an excellent game and a credit to grass roots football.
With so many great performances within the team it was almost impossible for the management team to choose a Man of the Match but the award goes to Lee Finnigan for constant work ethic in the midfield from the 1st till the the last whistle.
So it ended 14-1 & the Chopbacks are into the Quarter finals.
Have a good weekend people.