Saturday 1st Team v AFC Crowthorne

After last week’s great result seeing us reach the final of the Maidenhead Norfolkian cup, we turned our attention to the last 16 of the league cup against AFC Crowthorne. Two changes from last week’s team saw Luke come in to replace Lex and Brad in to replace Ben who impressed in last weeks semi final win. After two previous wins against Crowthorne, Old Windsor were confident going into the game that we could repeat the previous two wins, but we knew we wouldn’t have an easy game. One thing AFC Crowthorne bring is a never say die attitude and very impressive work rate.The first 10 mins of the game saw Crowthorne start the game faster perhaps to make a point after the two previous wins by Old Windsor that this game wouldn’t again be easy for us to come away with the win. There were signs despite our slow start that we were looking dangerous with our pace up top we could cause the opposition problems.In the 11th minute Old Windsor won a free kick, Walts took the free kick that was intercepted by the defence Luke managed to win the ball and recycle back to Walts his second delivery was a great ball in and Rory won the header who nodded on to Calvin who has the simple task of nodding into the back of the net. That gave us the lead that reinforced the fact of how dangerous we could be going forward but Crowthorne did look cause problems going towards our goal.The game ebbed and flowed at this point being played at a frenetic pace, however Old Windsor still looked the more likely of the two teams to further increase the lead. In the 27th minute we did just that. Scouse found Sean on the wing who set the ball back to Walts and the return pass set Sean free. From here Sean started on a run taking on and beating 4 players as Sean cut inside where most would say Brad was better placed, Sean let a left foot drive go that the Keeper in all honestly should have covered but he let the ball go under his body into the goal for his 11th of the season, 2 nil Old Windsor. Two mins later we should have seen Old Windsor awarded the penalty Brad was released and continued on a dangerous run into the box. As Brad was making head way to give himself a clear opportunity at goal he was clipped from behind, but the ref decide it was no penalty. The last 10 mins saw Crowthorne apply some pressure and opportunities from crosses into the box and set pieces, but Old Windsor saw this out to lead 2 nil at the break.Much of the half time team talk was about making sure we start fast as we knew Crowthorne would come at us trying to get an early goal to make the game a tighter affair. 2 mins in we won a throw in from Rory the Crowthorne defender won the ball that hit the bar after under pressure from Joe the keeper palmed the ball into his own net and twisted his ankle that saw him replaced. The replacement our favourite player after 3 threats in 3 games to flatten all of us without any repercussions he took his spot in goal. In the 55th minute Crowthorne has a great chance to reduce the arrears with a top effort from 25 yards that Harry expertly tipped over the bar, the resulting corner came to nothing. 3 mins later we scored a 4th the impressive Calvin rounded the Crowthorne keeper where he looked odds on to score but the covering defender made a great block that fell kindly to Walts who got a deserved goal that his performance deserved. Anthony replaced Sean on the right of the front three and again the game ebbed and flowed and in the 70th minute Crowthorne scored to reduce the score to 4-1. From the corner kick we won the header and the ball fell kindly to the Crowthorne attacker who had plenty of time to pick his spot past Harry in to the bottom right corner. Nathan replaced Joe who worked tirelessly in the midfield. From this point Crowthorne put us under some pressure and took a foothold in the game putting plenty of bodies forward. However Old Windsor stood firm and won our headers and looked to win the second ball and block shots at goal at every opportunity. Greeny replaced Brad and we changed shape leaving Calvin and Anthony up front with our intention to stop the Crowthorne attacks through the centre of the pitch. Adam came on for Luke in the last 10 mins to make a long overdue return to action. In the 85th min Calvin was released by Anthony with a classy through ball as he ran trough on goal the keeper came to clear but went through his legs and Calvin tapped home to put us 5-1 up. Lesser teams would have folded by now but Crowthorne are made of sterner stuff and continued to press for the remainder of the game. In the 92nd minute Crowthorne applied some pressure some great blocks that epitomises the spirit and never say die attitude of our team, but we didn’t get the rub of the Green 5-2 Old Windsor. On the Next attack Crowthorne put Scouse under pressure but as he looked to play the ball back his legs gave up and under hit the pass 5-3 soon after the final whistle went and on we progressed onto the quarter finals.Good effort all round from the team with all of the team contributing to the cause. Credit to AFC Crowthorne who never gave up and despite us now beating them on three separate occasion none of the games have been easy. They are a good side who will pick up results in the remainder of the season. Next week we return to league action for the first time since early December looking to improve on our league form going into the second half of the season to consolidate our position in the top half of the table.