More Cup Progression

Orington 3-1 Punnetts town
Gk Paul Savage
Rb Sean Ritson
Cb Tom (Hightower) Blything
Cb Rob Spice
Lb Scott Brunton
Rm Dan Stephens (Kyle Watson 65)
Cm Steve McGowan
Cm Scott Quested
Lm Craig Carey
Cf Dale Watson (Ben Peck 55)
Cf Billy Wood (Dale Matthews 75)
Scorers:
Scott Q, 15
Billy Wood, 65
Dale Matthews, 80
Another cup victory this week against a team who's 1st team folded from division 2, but after playing their 2nd team in a pre-season friendly can confidently say their 1st team have dropped down 4 divisions. We lost our captain Andy in the warm up with a groin issue, but fortunately Andy had ore warned me so bad a back up plan which saw Dale W get an unexpected start. From the ko we could see they were higher division as they were having a bit more of the ball than us and the ball was mostly in our half. They weren't really creating any chances never mind clear cut opportunities as we were defending well. We started to then get a grip of the game, possession and territory becoming more even and we got the first prosper shot on target when the keeper made a great save from Dale W's top corner bound shot. The breakthrough after the corner came in and was cleared towards the edge of the box, Scott Q backing off, eye constantly on the ball with a volley similar to Cantona with enough power that the keepers hand couldn't stop it finding the net, 1-0 to the O's. The first half remained relatively even, not sure how we managed it as the ref seemed to want to give them everything and nothing for us!! This resulted in our first card of the season when McGowan couldn't take any more and went into the book for dissent. We went into the break with that slender advantage. The 2nd half we started to have the lions share of the ball, starting to frustrate them. They did have a great opportunity to equalise, a powerful back post header looked as though it was going to ripple the net, Savage was having none of it though, great reactions to dive to his right and claw it out keeping our advantage intact. With the game becoming more stretched, McGowan played a ball through to Ben running down the right, despite a pull from the defender just outside the box he continued and got a shot off, meanwhile Billy showing that awareness and anticipation had already made his way into the danger area, Ben's shot parried by the keeper into Billy's path which he knocked into the empty net to edge ourselves closer to the next round. It was looking like we were going to keep that elusive clean sheet, but alas after lack of communication in defence, the ball came into the back post, had Sean been told he would've left it but instead headed it out towards the edge of the box where surprisingly they had an unmarked player who finished into the far corner. Their tails were up and atarted to put us under pressure, sensing their chance to take the match to extra time and it would've been the case had it not been for some great defending with blocks and last ditch tackles. We held them off, got the ball to McGowan who played a through ball for Dale M, keeper obviously hadn't recognised his pace and came running off his line to see Dale get there first, knock it round him and from a tight angle casually despatch it into the far corner completely deflating any hopes they had. It could've been extended when McGowan headed the ball over the back line for Dale M to run onto, he just didn't manage to lift it enough to get over the keeper. Another great hard working performance from the team, playing against players who were playing 4 divisions above us, a referee who wanted to give nothing to us but everything to them and grass that's about 3" long at the moment. Through to the next round of another cup, so have given ourselves another extra match to play.

Match Report by Stephen chester