Emmanuel came out victorious in a thrilling game which saw some comedy defending, great goals and sadly a serious injury to Emmanuel legend and Libya's best ever footballer Norradin Tourki.
With last weeks lame performance against Darley Abbey Colts still in our system like a late night with a bad curry we had to perform today and remind ourselves that we can indeed win football matches. It was close but we did it. Scoring started in the first half with Sam Carter getting his first league goal for the club with a superbly taken free kick after some good passing from Emmanuel resulted in a handball. Carter steered the ball expertly through the Stretton "wall" and into the goal. 1-0. Despite some other promising moments and good play on either flank from Keezy and Noddy, Stretton stepped it up and dominated for a period which saw them hit the bar, score from a penalty and draw a top class reaction save from Rob Barrow. Seriously, it was world class! Then with the last kick of the half Stretton won a freekick and Rob couldn't keep hold from a powerful drive. The Stretton strikers were more alert than the defence and Emmanuel found themselves trailing 1-2 at the interval.
The second half saw 6 goals and some great play from Emmanuel who rode their luck at times but deserved the end result. The equaliser came through Jack Ball who got inbetween the centre backs and guided the ball into the bottom corner from 25 yards. A superb finish. Emmanuel took the lead through sub John Parton who showed sublime skill to control a corner kick and hit a half volley on the turn into the far corner of the Stretton net. Another top quality finish from John which came only moments after his stunning volley had parents about ready to run onto the pitch and hail the greatest goal ever. Sadly that one went just over. 3-2. Stretton hit back again however after Emmanuel failed to clear ball to safety and made it 3-3 before Emmanuel scored another beauty as Kieron drove a wonder ball to the back post which dropped into the net. It wasn't a shot, I don't think, but it was superb none-the-less. Again Stretton hit back and some more kamikazee defending cost us a goal. Maybe we like doing it the hard way. 4-4. It looked to be over and a draw was on the cards when Keezy cut inside the defender and got brought down. Luke Gee stepped up and flighted a wonderful cross onto the head of Rhys Willey who placed the ball nicely into the Stretton net with the final touch of the match. Dramatic, yes, deserved, yes. Happy, VERY!!!.
Overall, can't fault the effort, it was superb. It would have been easy to let the heads drop after last weekend but seeing a team deterimined to redeem themselves was very satisfying, especially to keep coming back after getting knocked down. There were some hairy moments, some moments of indecision that cost us and we certainly had our share of luck, but we scored some superb goals, played some good football and looked dangerous today. It makes a difference to play football on a man's pitch with full sized goals. That's no excuse for last week because we have to adapt to various size playing surfaces but when you can spread the play and use the wings it makes football do the talking. We should take great confidence from this result as Stretton are a competitive and strong team who beat us in our last meeting. Let's take this energy and desire into Wednesdays match and perform once again. Go on, you know you want to. AVE IT!
On a more serious note we all wish Noddy the best. A strong challenge has left him with what looks like a broken ankle and some serious tissue damage. We called by to see him just before they took him from the walk in centre up to The RVI in Leicester and he is obviously frustrated and upset knowing that his season is over. We won the match today and we shall keep putting in the effort and hard work for our mate Noddy. Get well soon mate. Emmanuel legend.
Goals: Cater, Ball, Parton, Baldock, Willey
Man of the Match: John Parton
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