Reds End 2015 In Style

Our last game of 2015 proved to be another highly eventful encounter against Uni Strollers who put 6 past us in an incredibly open first game of the season.

Today's visitors are the highest scoring team in our Division and it is easy to see why. They have a wealth of attacking options, but their defence can leak goals and so that proved this morning.

We got off to a pretty inauspicious start. A defensive mix up allowed their pacey right winger time in the box and he fired into the far corner to give Uni an early lead.

5 minutes later we equalised. Luca Mortellaro played a cute pass in behind the Uni defence and after Joey Stevens had been denied by a good save, in form Toby Maher was on hand to poach his 9th goal of the campaign. Tob has now scored in all of his 7 appearances this season which is surely a club record and a fantastic achievement.

Soon after we took the lead. James Simpson won the ball down the right and played an elongated one two with Tom Frost before clinically finding the far bottom corner with a finish our strikers would be pleased with.

Luca's stinging half volley from the edge of the box was tipped over by the keeper and Joey should have scored when well positioned in the 6 yard box as we looked to add to our lead.

Uni's attacking quality was always a threat, but their equaliser midway through the half was a cracking left foot finish that left Damian Lynch with no chance.

A few minutes later Danny Cox did brilliantly to clear off the line after their prolific striker had clipped an effort over the onrushing Damo.

After Luca saw a low shot palmed around the post, his corner found Tob at the back post who's powerful header was blocked on the line and his brother Adam Maher saw his follow up also blocked.

We then went in front again. Adam and Frosty linked up in midfield before the latter passed out wide to Luca who moved forward and passed back inside to Adam. His flick somehow evaded the defender and Simon Grout ran onto the ball before smashing low past the helpess keeper.

The goalscoring still hadn't finished in a frantic first half as their skipper curled home another brilliant free kick, although this time the awarding of the foul was very soft indeed.

It's fair to say the 2nd half couldn't live up to the quality of the first period. Neither side was as potent going forward and in general our ball retention suffered.

However, we took the lead for a 3rd time just over 10 minutes after the interval. Luca played a cheeky nutmeg pass down the line to Jay who battled to keep the ball before crossing and the keeper spilled it into the net as he tried to backtrack to catch the ball. We have decided to award the goal to Jay in this instance.

We were thankful to Damo for two good saves. One in particular was a crucial block to deny their striker when he had got in behind.

With just over 15 minutes remaining we gave ourselves breathing space. Jay threw down the line to substitute Alex Zammit who did well to get past his man and deliver a ball to the near post where their centre back sliced the ball up and over the keeper in comical fashion. It was a welcome piece of luck that we were happy to take.

Uni were in no mood to give up and pulled one back with 10 minutes to go and it was another cracking goal, this time by their striker.

There were a couple of tense moments, especially at the end where their striker struck at goal, but Coxy blocked the shot and as the ball span away the referee blew to end the game.

Our last two games of the year have brought a total of 21 goals and a bagful of entertainment. A win was a must today and even if we struggled to keep the ball in the second half, our energy levels and will to win never dropped for one second.

At the very least the new year is going to bring us 3 league matches that all of our players should want to be involved in. It has been a fine season so far. Let's continue in 2016.

MoM: Grouty - on a day when our midfield 3 set the tone with their effort and workrate, Grouty stood tall with a top display and a well taken goal. Mentions also to the defence who despite conceeding 4 goals had very little chance with 3 of them and Jay notching a brace was impressive too.

Huge thanks to Lorry for running the line, to those who came to support (and there were a fair few today which was very welcome) and to Harwood for doing a bit of filming.

Have a great Christmas and New Year!