It was always going to be a tough game, against Eversley
who have played up in the Premier Elite for many seasons now. With Dan
still out with a knee injury and Jake away, the Hurricanes had 14 lads
for the game.
In the team briefing I explained how
the SPL cup/trophy works and that the lads should view playing Eversley
as an opportunity to pit themselves against a Premier Elite team and to
enjoy their football playing as a team. A win would take them through to
the Senior Cup and a loss would take them through to the Senior Trophy
competition, so either way more football to be played.
Finch
playing with the wind at their backs, the early exchanges were quite
balanced, with both teams pressing and maintaining possession well, both
teams defending and battling. James and Cam combined to put Max through
on goal, but was brought down by their keeper. Ollie stepped up and
calmly tucked it away to go 1-0 up. Max bashed his knee in the challenge
and that was him out of the game (hopeful for a quick recovery). Finch
were keeping the pressure on with some composed football. But then Ollie
rolled his ankle which ballooned up straight away, taking him out of
the game as well (A&E and the Xray say its very badly sprained, not
broken). Thank you to Nick B for taking over from Graeme on the line.
The
first half efforts were showing at half time with the lads looking
tired and down to 1 sub, and with the wind in their faces for the second
half. Eversley pilled on the pressure which Finch resisted initially
with some hard graft, but couldn’t eventually prevent the lobbed shot
into the top cover of the net. As the game progressed, the composure on
the ball and speed of pressing dropped giving the home side more room to
play. Even with a few tactical changes to increase energy levels in
centre mid and Ben/Adam taking turns to drop in to support at times,
didn’t make much impact. An uncleared ball led to their 2nd and a goal
mouth scramble from a corner ended up in the net in spite of an initial
goal line clearance. Finch rallied with a few counters of their own
including a Finch free kick that was spilled by their keeper and the
bouncing ball couldn’t be put into the net.
Alfie
took a knock to the head and eventually had to come off (Sarah keeping a
close eye on him), and Eversley pounced on a short pass near the edge
of our box to hit the target just out of Ben’s diving reach.
4-1 final score so Finch go into the Senior Trophy quarter finals on 20th January 2019.
Unfortunately
losing Ollie and Max so early on in the game through injuries had a big
impact on the game. Hopefully Max, Ollie and Alfie will make speedy
recoveries. The lads worked really hard and played some good football,
not much more they could really do but the end of the game. We still
struggle with composure and decision making as the energy levels drop,
especially in these higher level games. But this is all good experience
for them and will help us in the Premier division. Thank you to Graeme
and Nick for running the line today.
