A Beer In The Sun

Dominant display ends in 3 points

With Chad having one of the best pitches in Div 1 at this time of the season, Aston were looking forward to playing on a deck that best suits their passing game. Turmoil had struck the lions camp this week after Edition 3 of teammates 2.0 caused some controversy, and 3 points was the only remedy. The sun always seems to shine in this fixture and today was no different. For most players this would be the ideal setting for a game of football, but not our major. He was red faced seconds into setting foot out into the sunlight, and wasn’t long before he was praying for those cold cloudy wintery months.

Again Aston could not line up with the same starting 11 from the previous game. Cross, Hewer, Harriss and Lewis all came in for those missing, and the gaffer continued with this season’s 3-5-2 formation

After such a slow start against Tower Hill 2 weeks ago the gaffer made his plan clear, “warm up properly and start much quicker than we have been doing recently”. With The majors no look, to no one passes aside, the lions warmed up fairly well. The game began how the gaffer had requested, the reds looking much more confident in moving the ball and much sharper than previous weeks. Rusty Ryan (Hewers revised nickname for the day) spent the first 10 minutes using the Chad right winger as target practise. Whatever Hewer tried it was guaranteed to hit him, so now Hewer was rusty by name, rusty by nature. The first 15 minutes was all Aston, but the one thing that was missing from their good build up play was a final ball. Loose passes were becoming contagious in the final 3rd and the team struggled to create a clear cut chance. The The reds did not have it all their own way though. Chad, without having much of the ball, were looking the most threatening when the away side gave possession away cheaply in their own half. Although not having anything to save of note, the reds did have to do some last ditch defending at times. Chad then did give Aston a wake up call, when they had the ball in the net, only for it to be ruled out for offside. It had the desired effect, and on 30 mins the lions scored. After patient build up play along the back, Cade received the ball out wide. He passed inside to Harriss, who played a forward pass into Fleming Snr. He beat 2 players and crossed to Lewis, whose shot was blocked and followed up by Long. Longs shot was saved, but Beer was there to slide the ball in from 2 yards. The rest of the half played out in similar fashion, with Lewis having a few chances, but unable to get the bazooka firing, and plenty of corners, which couldn’t be capitalised on. Half time 0-1 Aston.

The gaffer was pleased with what he had seen. He wanted to continue to dominate the game, cut out the silly mistakes and the 3 points would surely follow. Long was replaced by Angus, due to a “tight hammy” but we all know the main reason was so he could give Rusty Ryan a good heckling from the sideline. That was the only change, so Angus went wing back and Beer came into the middle with Fleming Jr and Harriss.

The 2nd half started a little more untidy by the reds. There was a lack of build-up play through the lines and more direct balls were being used. Aston were getting most of their joy this half down the wings with the pace of Cade and now Angus causing both Chad fullbacks problems. Cade, especially in the first 20 mins of the 2nd half was jinking past 2-3 men, only to be either brought down or blocked off, but had no sympathy from the official and no FK’s given. Aston needed another spark to get things going again and it was a goal that did it. Fleming Snr beat the right back in a header on the half way line and chased the ball down. He collected it on the edge of the box and with a quick step over he bypassed his marker to the byline. The ball was pulled back to the penalty spot, where Beer was storming his way down the hill and finished into the bottom corner. 0-2 Aston.
Edwards rang the changes with the tireless running Cade taking a deserved break for Dove, and Fleming Jr coming off for a reluctant sub Caswell. Aston did have some tricky situations down the right side in the last 10 mins, when the substitute right winger for Chad did more in his spell than his previous counterpart. He was very quick and tricky, and Chad were able to get more crosses in and cause more trouble down that side when the chances arose. Aston saw out the remainder of the game fairly confidently and the 0-2 win was enough. 3 points and still undefeated.

Between the gaffer and Caswell MOM went to Fleming Snr, but with special mentions for Cade who had his most effective game to date, Clarke for another assured performance, and Harriss who was his consistent self. Onto the next game and another 3 points needed to keep the rest of the league chasing us.