Home and another lovely warm autumn afternoon.

Bradley Stoke started with the bit between their teeth. The first 25 minutes involved a lot of hard work from everyone and AXA could only absorb the attack from Bradley Stoke, offering little in response. Stoke were moving forward with ease but rarely did they get down into the corners and behind AXA’s fullbacks. It seemed that Stoke wanted to push all play through the middle of the park which was packed with 3 or 4 defenders at times. But still the pressure lead to a number of corners, of which one of them was met by a flying "Bruce Lee" style kick from Captain and Manager James Palmer into the near post for a goal.
As the first half wore on AXA became more comfortable in this one dimensional attack and started to find faster counter attacks through long ball clearances falling just over the retreating Bradley Stoke midfield. AXA’s first goal came from such a clearance. Unfortunately the referee didn’t see the pushing and shoving off the ball just before. This fracas lead to some of Bradley Stoke's fullbacks being otherwise preoccupied. Then not long after that Stoke had conceded a second via a nasty floating cross the just dipped under the far crossbar.

The second half saw a few positional changes due to a hamstring injury to Craig Potter. Straight from the whistle Bradley Stoke let themselves get pinned back by AXA. The Stoke Midfield and Defence were working incredibly hard to win back possession, especially man of the match Chris Tysoe, but once they had the ball there was no one to give it to. The forwards became more and more out of touch with the game. The main problem being no one was winning or holding the ball up and every header which was won by AXA came straight back into the Bradley Stoke half. Late into the game a goal kick from Bradley Stoke struck down the right hand side came straight back with an AXA midfielder hitting the ball from about 45 yards out while Dave was still retreating to his line - the ball zipped into the roof of the net.
Final score Bradley Stoke 1 - AXA 3.

Bradley Stoke's efforts for the majority probably deserved more for their hard work, but if not all 11 players are working as a team and putting in 100%, aswell as communicating, it is like playing with a team that is short of players.

Match report courtesy of Roger Smith.