The unbeaten have fallen. Records came to an end. The underdogs triumphed. That is, Vanbrugh 1sts’ winning streak and run of clean sheets was halted by a superb Halifax 2nds performance on Friday, and they surprised everyone with their tenacity.
It is a reminder that no team is invincible in this year’s competition, and anyone who thought Vanbrugh would waltz to an easy victory against Goodricke 1sts in three days’ time needs to think again.
The tie is set up very nicely indeed. All of a sudden, people are talking less about Vanbrugh’s impressive goalscoring record – they have found the back of the net a remarkable 21 times – than their ability to bottle it in the big games.
If Goodricke were watching Halifax 2nds on Friday, they should probably adopt their exact strategy from that match.
Ben Stanier needs to be denied space to run at defenders, otherwise a defensive crisis will inevitably occur. Phil Taylor needs to be closed down quickly, otherwise he can pick a pass and dictate play from central midfield.
In addition, Sam Astbury and company at the back will need to be on top form to deal with John Gill’s long throws. Crucially, when Goodricke do get the ball, they must break quickly, just like Halifax did.
Vanbrugh often like to make the pitch big, which they struggled to do on Friday as Rory Sharkey limped off. He loves to run at the full back and whip crosses in, so Vanbrugh will be desperate that he returns to action soon. If he does, Dave Bullock will need to be on his toes for the entire 60 minutes.
However, as we have seen, this Vanbrugh defence is far from impregnable. I’m not entirely convinced by Max Brewer at centre back, as he was ruthlessly bullied by Hamish Denham on Friday.
But Goodricke’s problem is they don’t have a big, imposing striker who could capitalise on this. Instead, they have several small, skilful players such as Joe Mann and Sam Lewis, who try to trick their way through a defence rather than a more direct route of crashing through it.
For this reason, I still think Vanbrugh are strong favourites to progress to the semi-finals. They will probably make some changes in defence, both in training and in team selection, which should provide the platform for their deadly strike force to tear Goodricke apart.
Goodricke will get chances I’m sure and might nick a goal on the counter-attack, but eventually I think Vanbrugh’s quality will see them through.
Prediction: Vanbrugh 1sts 3-1 Goodricke 1sts
Players to watch: Rory Sharkey (Vanbrugh); Joe Mann (Goodricke)