Happy New Year to all!

We all returned in good spirits from an all too short Christmas break.
Would the winning formula return verses struggling Seymour Utd on a cold Saturday afternoon?
The pitch, not the best, brings to mind visions of a skateboard half pike or a saddle shape, obviously this would give a little advantage to the home team.

The game kicks off with Bradley Stoke also trying a new formation of 5-3-2, hoping to close down previous holes in the midfield. Seymour were pinned back for most of the first half and among many shots from Bradley Stoke, Jerry Harper curled a lovely ball in, only to be stopped by one of many brilliant saves by Seymour’s keeper. Seymour only had one way out and that was long balls by the keeper or defence, totally bypassing their own midfield. Due to the size and shape of the pitch many of these clearances from Seymour would fly over Bradley Stoke’s defence and give Seymour’s forwards a chance to make a dash for goal, but to no avail. After 30 minutes a frustrated Bradley Stoke reverted to 4-4-2 to see if this would be more effective. With this change, both wings vanished from the game as balls were monotonously knocked up the middle, not held up and immediately lost. This advanced into unnecessary panic, poor communication and dreadful passing. This only helped Seymour look more dangerous then they actually were.

A sound communal half time talk eliminated the latter of the problems of the first half. But width continued to be a problem into the second half. 10 minutes into the second half Bradley Stoke substituted 2 midfielders for a needed fresh look. Moments later, Seymour Utd, found acres of space down their right wing. The cross came in low with Bradley Stoke caught napping at the back. Seymour’s lone forward found himself on-side as he ran in to score the opener. It took Bradley Stoke a little time to get back into the match but the midfield started ticking over as Mark Palmer worked very hard to free up the other midfielders and give them an easy time on the ball. The right wing was opening up as Ben Osbourne was getting more and more service. This eventually led to the equaliser towards the last 10 minutes of the game as Osbourne pulled the ball back for Harper to calmly pass the ball into the far side of the goal.
There were a few hairy scary moments for both teams in the final minutes as both keepers saved the day a few times. The result may not have been the right one to start the New Year, but neither team really deserved to win the match.

Match report courtesy of Roger Smith.