Having not played for almost a month the last thing Holbeach needed was a game against fellow promotion hopefuls Eunice Huntingdon, since Christmas the Tigers have not quite hit the level they showed previously. As the transfer deadline approaches the Tigers needed to find a few new faces to boost numbers for a final run in to gain promotion. Alex Perry, Liam Bills & Max Bunn joined up with the squad for training and were available for this game.

Before the game the two team observed a moment silence in respect to the terrible events in London earlier in the week, as the referee brought the silence to an end the roar from the Tigers team seemed different from usual……

The game started at a very good pace and very quickly it became apparent this was going to be a good contest. The first opportunity of the game fell to Jordan Clow who shot just wide from the edge of the area. The Tigers were now starting to exert some authority onto the game and other than a few tame efforts Eunice were struggling to match the Tigers efforts, Luke Want was now showing why he had been handed his first start for the team since joining in the summer & it was some good work in the centre of the pitch to work the ball wide to the rampaging Ryan Howard who was constant threat to the Eunice full back after beating the man Ryan played the ball into Jordan Clow who had a slightly heavy touch with the ball just getting away from him during the movement to rectify the mis-control, Jordan caught the Eunice defender and in the fracas that followed both players were lucky to not receive a yellow card from the referee. Unfortunately the decision to not stamp his authority on the game at that point led to a flurry of nasty challenges from both sides. The worst of which was when a cheeky Meg Nutt’s by Ryan Howard right in front of the two dugouts led to two Eunice players do what could only be described as ‘assault’ on him and yet again no action was taken by the referee other than a free kick to the Tigers.

The Tigers needed a goal to complement their control on the game and after a surging run by Luke Wilson who played in the hard working Luke Want who took aim and fired the Tigers into a well-deserved lead. The Tigers now wanted blood and were soon back on the offensive with Gary Booth who slipped the ball into Joel Newton who played the ball to Jordan Clow to score his first goal for the ‘A’ team with a neat finish past the hapless keeper….. 2 Nil to the Tigers!

The Eunice players were now evidently not happy with the way the game had gone so far and it was soon even worse as some neat intricate passing on the
Holbeach right side found Taylor Beveridge who skipped past a Eunice defender and charged into the penalty box where the Polish goalkeeper came rolling out his goal and brought Taylor down just after he had played the ball into Jordan Clow to pass into an empty net. Luckily for the keeper the Tigers scored otherwise he would have been red carded for sure. The referee blew the half time whistle and the Tigers were in a commanding lead of 3-0….

As the teams came out for the second half some unfortunate news that Jody Le Sage had picked up a knock near the end of the first half and couldn’t continue, this led to Gary Booth resuming his centre back partnership with the reliable Scott Burrell. The change in personnel didn’t seem to make much difference to the pattern of the game because within 10 minutes of the restart Jordan Clow powered his way past the Eunice defence and into the penalty area where he played the ball square to Luke Want who seemed to take an age to slot the ball into the goal and the game should now have been finished as a contest a 4-0……..

Holbeach now seemed to relax a little now and after a good move by the Eunice midfield the ball was lofted into the Tigers penalty area where the ball was nodded towards goal and past the stranded Alex Perry, Eunice sensed they might be able to get back into the game. Very quickly they were again on the offensive and soon added a second suddenly the Tigers were under pressure for the first time in 60 minutes.

With Jordan Clow starting to feel tired after an impressive 65 minutes of running and hassling he was taken off with Jonathan “super sub” Clark entering the field, within 5 minutes JC was put clear down the right by Luke Wilson and with a surging run into the penalty area and with just the keeper to beat, JC sipped the ball under the advancing keeper who then collided with the strikers legs for what should have been a clear penalty as the shot rebounded off the post and was cleared. Yet again the goalkeeper was very lucky to stay on the pitch.

The game was now very poor with silly fouls from both teams, not only was there some heated exchanges on the pitch but the dugouts were clearly exchanging words although neither understood what the other was saying at times. The referee brought the game to a close and it was a massive 3 points for the Tigers and for Eunice it was a first league defeat of 2016/17.

After the game Tigers manager Simon Howard said “for 70 minutes we controlled the game and Eunice couldn’t live with what we brought” he added “I felt the referee let some silly fouls go today which didn’t help with the temperament from either team, how we didn’t get 2 penalties I do not know” When asked about the oppositions goalkeeper, Simon said “maybe I should ask him for the lottery numbers tonight as he is one lucky boy”

Man of the match was Luke Want, who showed good character in driving the team forward and enjoyed his two goals. Well done to Alex Perry who was making his debut for the Tigers with a commanding performance between the sticks, at no fault for either of the goals conceded. Also a well done to Liam Bills for a good 10 minutes at the end, showed some good touches and looks a good prospect for the future.