M&T Jaguars vs. Salisbury White – 18th Sept ’22
A beautiful morning to kick the season off at Timsbury rec the home of the Jaguars.
With Riley, Mally and Lloyd making their debuts we were keen to start making this new look team gel.
After a wonderfully observed minutes silence to honour Her Majesty The Queen, the game kicked off.
Due to various unfortunate reasons, Salisbury only had 7 players. I was hoping this wouldn’t give our players a sense of thinking it would be easy as that would be a bad trap to fall into. Salisbury played out of their skin and did incredibly well with 2 players less. But we stuck to our game and our philosophy and that served us well in the end.
We started as we wanted, playing the ball around confidently. Riley and Glyn set the tone with calm distributions forward.
We used the flanks well and kept patient.
Thomas was doing the shielding job well putting in some good challenges.
It might have felt like it wasn’t going to be our day as the Salisbury goalkeeper made save after save. Even when we did beat him, the outstanding number 5 headed off the line.
We need to work on our run timings or bending runs as their linesmen sprained his shoulder having to raise his flag so often.
Eventually we managed to take the lead when a ball over the top was chased down by Harry who battled hard to finish.
A top save from Aidan just before half time ensured that we went in 1.0 up.
Half time. Jaguars 1.0 Salisbury.
Salisbury didn’t give up and came back strong. A fantastic strike into the corner brought them level and it was exactly what they deserved.
It was really important that we didn’t panic and start forcing the game. We needed to keep playing the football and eventually it would pay off against a tiring opponent.
Thankfully, the boys put in a very mature performance and did just that. They stayed calm and worked it well.
Glyn and Mally worked the midfield well with James and Aidan keeping the width.
We took the lead with a bit of luck as a scuffed shot from Harrison squirmed under the keeper and crossed the line by a few inches. The keeper didn’t deserve it as he played superbly.
The more we moved the ball around the more the oppo tired. Lloyd had a few mazy dribbles down the right wing and showed good pace creating chances.
Some hard pressing from Aidan won the ball back on the edge of their area. He kept his composure and set up a lovely assist for Harry to finish.
More pressure up front from Harry earned himself a hat trick. He took the ball from the keeper and passed into the open goal.
Salisbury still never gave up so Theo and Eddie still had plenty to do at the back but they did it well. Theo never looked like he was going to get beaten.
We rounded off a good performance when Harrison scored a tap in from a lovely unselfish assist from Harry.
A good start to the season and the beginning of making our home a fortress. We can’t get carried away as we did have a significant advantage in numbers today but the maturity, patience and effort we showed today stands us well.
Always a good sign when we have a good spread of votes for player of the day.
Votes came in for Eddie, Mally, Theo, Glyn and Aidan.
Riley came a very close second for a very commanding and composed game with lots of encouraging vocals but the winner today was Harry – A hat trick and an assist with constant running up top and closing down. Great start. You will get loads more when you learn to hold or bend those runs.
