Stop the Rot

London Road Tavern (0) 1 Vs 1 (1) Seabridge FC 18/03/07 League

Gale force winds set the stage for replay match against London Road Tavern (LRT), Seabridge fielding a completely different team to the one fielded last week, changing to a 3-5-2 formation.
Cooke as usual in goal;
Cooper, Kerns and new boy Gav Pearce playing across the back;
Smith (Cap), Rushton and Bird in the Middle of the park with Sidebotham wide right and Martin wide left;
Egginton and Thursfield took the attacking positions.
On the bench were New boys Ryan Frasier, a striker straight from the Staffs county Senior league and Shawn ?? Who has impressed with steady performances at training.
It was also the welcome return of winger Dave Joseph, who has missed most the season due to work commitments.
London Road Tavern started the first half kicking into the wind and also only fielding 10 players.
Seabridge started strong applying plenty of pressure mostly due to the wind and extra man, LRT could not find there way past the halfway line and the ball remained deep in there half. Seabridge scored early, with a solo run through the middle by Sidebotham which resulted in a goal. Ten minutes later Sidebotham nearly did it again as a carbon copy run resulting in a save by the keeper. Perhaps Sidebotham should have done better?
Seabridge failed to produce any other good chances in the half which was disappointing especially due to the possession that Seabridge had.
The teams left the field with the Seabridge one goal better off but this should have been more, with the wind against them and LRT now fielding a full complement of players, this next half was going to be tough.
Frasier made his debut coming on upfront for Thursfield, who sadly once again had failed to make an impression on the game.
Seabridge kicked off and Smith needlessly gave the ball away, and so started the battle against the wind. Seabridge defended excellently as Cooper kept there striker quite and Kerns sweeping up any balls that came through, LRT came close to scoring then the breakthrough for them came as a goal kick by Cooke only just made it past the goal area which was picked up by LRT right winger whom Martin had failed to mark resulting in Cooper making a 20 yard dash to close down the player who chipped the ball over Coopers head to the striker, who then turned Kerns and slotted the ball past Cooke.
Barber then made his second substitution bring on Joseph on for Sidebotham, this started to turn the came around as the Seabridge had a fresh outlet for the defence to give the ball to.
Seabridge now started to attack and peg back LRT slightly, Frasier made a good run off a through ball by Joseph, which was clearly onside leaving Fraser one-on-one with the keeper but the linesman was convinced that he was offside. A long ball from Bird then released Rushton who beat the offside trap and sprinted towards goal with only the keeper to beat, but hit the ball directly at the keeper, minutes later a crossed ball from Egginton landed at Rushton’s feet, just outside the goal area and the resulting shot went well wide of the left post.
Seabridge were now completely in control of the game again and Joseph then tackled LRT left back and created a counter attacking move in which he hit a long range shot which struck the cross bar and went out for a corner.
In the dying minutes of the game Frasier picked up the ball on the left side of the LRT goal area, beat a player and played the ball to Egginton who couldn’t turn in time and hit the ball against the defender which resulted in a corner.
The ref blew the whistle for full time and spoils shared.
Seabridge glad to put an end to the losing streak but slightly disappointed that they didn’t come away with all three points; Seabridge could have easily won this game by 4 or 5 goals, though it was good to see the players jubilant after a game for once.
Cooper getting the Man-Of-the-Match award for a faultless defensive performance, limiting LRT to only a few chances through out the whole game, also a mention for Rushton who worked non-stop for the entire match and help man mark LRT’s main man from the game.

Player Ratings
Cooke – 6 fairly quite game did not have much to do.
Cooper – 8 Great performance preventing most attacks
Kerns – 7 Swept up any loose balls and through balls
Gav – 6 Put in a steady performance, though was quite for periods of the game
Smith – 6 seemed to always be where the ball wasn’t, battled hard as usual.
Bird – 6 Steady performance, one too many touches, needlessly giving the ball away.
Rushton – 7 Hard working performance and unlucky not to get a goal or two
Sidebotham – 6 Came out of obscurity to score a goal and then faded back in.
Martin – 6 Steady performance
Egginton – 6 Seemed to lack his usually sharpness on the ball, unlucky not to get a penalty
Thursfield – 4 was not at the races at all, could not use his height to full affect

Subs:
Frasier - 6 Came on and worked hard, created one or two chances, gave us more depth in attack
Joseph – 7 Battled hard and really put the opposition to the knife
Shawn – 6 Did the simple things well and looked comfortable