Assists: James/Ryan & Cedrick?
Special Skills Award: Ryan
Substitue of the Week: Nass
The pre-match preparations had their usual desperate touch. The Council had failed to remove the deadlock on the changing rooms. The pitch allocation was inside the changing rooms and we nearly became embroiled in a turf war when another local club got upset that we’d put our nets up on their normal pitch. Ripley, by contrast, had a well rehearsed training routine underway a full 45 minutes before kick off and turned up with an away following that was bigger than some Blue Square League Teams get. Our team had the appearance of a bunch of refugees as they arrived in various states of undress from the direction of the locked changing rooms. (Note to self: Must buy extra kit for next season to reduce the pre match changing fiascos of this season).
Having been held to a draw in their previous fixture 2nd placed Ripley needed to beat Emmanuel to keep their title hopes alive.
The sunshine and late start had brought out our biggest home following of the season and for most of the lads this was the biggest crowd they’d ever played in front of. Their response was really pleasing. They seemed unphased by the occasion and had more attacking opportunities in the first 5 minutes than they’d had in the whole of the previous match at Ripley.
Ripley’s ball control and movement was superior to ours. Their attack asked serious questions of our defence throughout the game. However, our lads passed the ball as well as they have all season, looked threatening on the break and can be proud of the way that they defended. After 40 minutes James and Ryan combined down the right to create an opening that Kieron finished off for his 7th of the season and with a slender 2-1 advantage Ripley’s title chances were hanging by a thread.
In the final 20 minutes both teams scored from the penalty spot and although Emmanuel continued to threaten, with Cedrick looking particularly dangerous when the ball was played in behind the Ripley line, two open play Ripley goals sealed a 5-2 scoreline.
Once again our side have stood toe to toe with a team with superior technical ability and not given an inch. There are lessons to be learnt about man marking and our wingers need to learn to take more responsibility for tracking back but overall it was another pleasing display by a much-improved team. I’m almost looking forward to playing Allestree again so that we can benchmark our defensive improvements.
At the risk of sounding like a record that has got stuck, it’s now up to the individual players as to whether they are interested in putting in the practice that will be needed for them to improve technically.
The Squad: Thomas S, Thomas B, Sajid, Matthew, Richard, Josh, Anupam, Ahmed, Nass, Ryan, James, Cedrick, Robbie, Kieron.
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