James moved three points clear at the top of Group C by comfortably seeing of Vanbrugh 2nds in their toughest fixture of the College Cup so far.
The two sides both had a maximum nine points from their three games prior to today, which meant at least one team’s 100% record would have to end. James, who had racked up a whopping 24 goals in these opening three fixtures, were always the favourites however, and they lived up to this tag, never letting Vanbrugh into the game and making them look a shadow of the side of the past three weeks.
Gill, O’Donoghue, Woodman and Banbridge, the latter who layed on a goal for his side, formed a solid base at the back, and James were able to build from there.
Spurling and Kreienbaum won the physical midfield battle with Shepherd and Picknell which allowed the men in black to dominate the game. After a slow first half they came to life in the second, and a flurry of goals in the last ten minutes gave James the scoreline they probably deserved.
James Davies was the main threat in attack, bagging a brace, whilst Tom Clarke scored a twelfth goal in four games and Andrew Jopson slotted home to give James an average of seven goals per game so far in the tournament.
The first warning signs for Vanbrugh came in the first minute – Tom Clarke fired a 25-yard strike just wide of the upright.
Ferrao then volleyed over from a Bainbridge ball from the right before James took the lead after 10 minutes. A rapid break from James Davies saw him burst through on goal and Tom Williams made a smart save, but the rebound fell to Tom Clarke who smashed it in off the post to make it 1-0.
Despite dominating, James struggled to create much more in the first half, a tame Kreienbaum shot the only other real effort on goal before the break.
Vanbrugh’s only outlet was coming down the right-hand side through Sanderson, but they were unable to string passes together to set up any kind of threat. Williams was their stand-out player between the sticks, and if it were not for him James could have had a few more than four.
James came out strongly in the second half and kept him busy. He easily caught an attempted Clarke lob before pulling out a fine stop to keep it at 1-0.
A nice interchange between Davies and Ferrao on the left put Davies through on goal and he attempted to curl his strike into the bottom right which Williams kept out well to his left. Davies headed the resulting corner into the side netting.
He saved well from Jopson minutes later before an uncharacteristic mistake saw him let off even more uncharacteristically by Tom Clarke.
Williams spilled a tame long range strike from Spurling and Davies pulled the loose ball back to Clarke, only for the prolific striker to put his shot over with the goal at his mercy.
Williams was back on fine form in the 47th minute however, tipping over a fine Gill header from a Davies corner at full stretch before making another good save to yet again deny Davies in a one-on-one situation five minutes later.
Moments later he was finally beaten for the second time however. Some poor defending from Cust at left-back allowed Jopson past him, and the winger slid his shot under Williams’ body and into the back on the net.
It triggered a flurry of late goals for James. James Davies picked up the third with a move he both started and finished. He played the ball out to Clarke wide left, who whipped in an inviting cross which Davies followed and nodded into the top corner.
Three minutes later and it was four. A excellent ball in from the right from Matt Bainbridge flew over the Vanbrugh centre back to Davies at the far post, and the number 10 took the ball down well before beating Williams at the near post.
A token shot on target from Vanbrugh’s Adam Lewis two minutes from time at least gave them an attack to speak of, but it was a comfortable win for James against what had looked like strong opposition prior to the game.
“It was out first real game in which we got closed down in midfield,” said James captain Josh Spurling. “We showed a bit of grit, it was really, really promising.”