The 1sts welcomed Homeguard to a very windy University Playing Fields and chose to play with the wind in the first half.

This paid dividends very early on, as on 8 minutes a Dan Alexander free kick from the right touchline flew long on the wind but was retrieved by Rickie Jones who tried to play the ball back into the box. The ball was cleared by the Homeguard defence but only to to Sion Morris just outside the Penalty Area. He lashed a shot back in, which appeared to be going wide, until it struck a defender and diverted past the stranded keeper to give the Cons a 1-0 lead.

This was quickly doubled two minutes later when a long clearance from centre back, Gaz Lloyd, cleared everyone and fell into the space behind the Homeguard defence. The keeper ran out of his area to try and clear, but Cons striker, Jon Counsell, just beat him to the ball and was able to regain his feet and slide the ball home from a wide angle on the right hand side.

The Cons joy of this early lead was dampened when striker, James Gollop, suffered a very bad injury, which saw him have to be carried from the field and a trip to hospital. Sub, Rob Condliffe, replaced him in a like for like replacement.

The Cons were playing a lot of good football, with options for the player in possession as his colleagues were making themselves available in plenty of space.

On 23 minutes, an in swinging Alexander corner from the right was cleared back to the touchline, where Alexander was able to retrieve the ball and fire in another long cross. This was met by wide man Jones, whose shot was partially saved by the keeper and the alert Counsell was able to follow up and score to give his side a 3-0 lead which they retained until half time.

The question now was this enough of a lead for the Cons to defend playing against the strong wind in the second half.

These fears were quickly alleviated after only two minutes, when Jones did some great work down the left flank beating three opponents before crossing the ball long on the wind to right defender, Dan Walsh. He brought the ball down well, cut in and calmly shot left footed across the keeper into the far corner, to score his first goal for the first team since joining the Club this season.

The half continued with Homeguard having a bit more advanced play, mainly due to the wind, but were not able to capitalise on the favourable elements. The Cons for their part, were very comfortable at playing the ball on the floor, and it was good to see the side working well for each other.

This patience rewarded itself towards the end of the game. On 76 minutes Alexander was again the provider, this time following his good work on the right flank, he was able to cross low into the box for Condliffe to fire home strongly from 15 yards out. Five minutes later Jones again provided another long cross to the far post where Counsell was waiting to tap home to complete his hat trick. This was a fine reward for an afternoon of lots of running behind the visitors defence and providing a number of opportunities for his colleagues to try and score.

The Cons scoring was finished off when Rickie Jones who, having been the provider all afternoon, won the ball in midfield and fed Dan Walsh on the right flank. His strong cross, against the wind, found Jones unmarked in the box, as he had tracked forward after providing the pass, and he was able to hit the back of the net to give his side a 7-0 victory.

The comprehensive win avenged the 3-0 loss to the Homeguard in the Cup, just a couple of weeks before, and provided the Cons with their first clean sheet in the League this Season. They must now take this fine team performance forward in the games to come to enable them to climb up the League.

Match details

Match date

Kickoff

Competition

Star Player