Since the second half of the defeat against Hawley at the end of September, I have seen a big improvement in the way that the Falcons have been playing. We lost that Hawley game heavily (6-1), but our last two games, against Henley and The Spartans, have been narrow defeats, both 3-2. The Henley game was very even and I felt we had more chances against the Spartans. After both those games, we spoke with the boys and
encouraged them to keep playing the way they were and that the result would follow. Today it did!

With 5 players withdrawing from today’s game, we shuffled the formation a little and played a 4-5-1, which is a little unusual for us. Perhaps because of this, we started a little slowly. With a few players a little unsure of their positions to start with. However, Barton’s best period of the game was in the first 25 minutes, they had 4 or 5 attempts on goal which our defence dealt with admirably. It was at the end of this period that Barton opened the scoring with a nice flowing passing move and a good finish across our keeper. (0-1) The Falcons had chances though. Five or six in the first half, but we didn’t have our shooting boots on.

Half Time 0-1

At halftime we spoke about the need to keep playing our game, but to close Barton down quicker, harry, challenge for each ball, anchor midfield and to take more shots.

In the second half, the boys executed this really, really well. Falcons were on the attack from the start and were level within a minute, Max played a great pass to Chris, who turned, took a touch, and hit a blistering shot into the top right corner, the Rovers ‘keeper got a hand to it, but the shot was far too strong (1-1).

The next 25 minutes was effectively sustained Falcons pressure, solid defence from Barton and the occasional Barton counter-attack. The next goal would be critical….

Cameron, Frankie, Gabriel and Ioan were fantastic in defence today, they only really got beaten once (for the goal) but showed great positional awareness and distribution throughout. Archie made several tricky saves look easy.

Stanley did a great job of anchoring the midfield, especially in the second half, with multiple turnovers out to both wings where Raphael and Marcus combined well on the right, with Jack and Max combining well on the left, or forward to Eadoin and Chris who were causing havoc in attack.

Falcons took the lead on 61 minutes, a super through ball from Jack found Chris on the edge of the area, he made no mistake, burying his shot under the keeper (2-1). A super finish and that’s 4 goals in the last 2 games for Chris now.

Five minutes later, a little bit of Falcons history, Raphael scored his first competitive goal for the Falcons, assisted by his brother ;-) Raphael took the pass from Chris and dribbled past a couple of defenders and then beat the keeper with a sweet chip. (3-1)

In the closing stages, Eadoin was asked to push up to support Chris in attack, creating a more traditional 4-4-2 and , In the last minute of the game, Eadoin got his goal. Taking the ball forward, he dinked past two defenders to be one-on-one with the Barton ‘keeper, took the ball around the goalie but was brought down as the ‘keeper grabbed his leg rather than the ball, a clear penalty, denying a clear goal-scoring opportunity. There appeared to be some brief discussion about who was going to take the penalty between Chris, Marcus and Eadoin,, but Eadoin stepped up and buried it in the top corner, a great penalty. (4-1)

So there it is, a result that is reflective of the effort and quality of our play over the last few games. Super performances from each player, all over the pitch, Well done !!

Full time 4-1

COYF!!
Phill

Match details

Match date

Sat 30 Oct 2021

Kickoff

15:00

Team overview