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Pictures by Daniel Golton
This game was an interesting game, with both teams having spells of good play however James emerged victorious with a 2-0 win.
The first chance of the game came when James got in behind early on for a one-on-one, however the keeper was quick off the line to get rid of the danger. The next chance fell to James again and to the left winger Austin. A James shot was blocked and Austin was in the right position to slot the ball into the bottom left corner from around 10 yards out.
About 15 minutes in there was a bit of a clash between Sangha and Lewis, with one player losing their cool a bit and kicking at the other player a-la-Balotelli. Some harsh words were then exchanged before the referee calmed things down, and the rest of the game was fairly clean.
Sangha was making some good attacking Alves-esque runs down the right hand side which were causing problems for Goodricke. However Goodricke were still in the game and their midfield proved to be resilient. The next goal scoring chance came around half an hour into the game when fresher Gwyn Davies got the ball inside the area and did a ball roll past his man before finishing neatly. The half time score was 2-0, and it would remain this way for the rest of the game.
In the second half James created numerous chances but were struggling to find their shooting boots, while Goodricke struggled with their final ball, and found it hard to break down James’ solid back four. Overall, it was a good contest, with James creating more chances. However, Goodricke were in the game throughout and put up a good fight.
I caught up with the James captain Sangha after the game:
Me: What did you make of today’s game?
Sangha: Happy with the result, I think we definitely should’ve scored more. We had a few one on one chances which we missed in the second half that we should’ve been putting away to take the edge off the game. We said at half time that the second half would be a tough one, because obviously they were still in the game and it was only 2-0, but we should’ve scored more. They didn’t really trouble us at the back at all; the keeper didn’t have much to do and had a quiet game. Really happy with the performance, was a lot better than last week and we’re going to get better as we go on now. We have a few freshers in here who played really well today,
Me: Gwyn Davies looked quite good.
Sangha: ‘Yeah Gwyn Davies was our man of the match. He was class, he was very busy and was impressive.’
Me: What happened with you and the little kick out? It was like a little Vieira, Keane moment. *Referring to the incident with Lewis in the first half*.
Sangha: *jokingly* I don’t know about that, I can’t remember. (He’s obviously been watching a few Arsene Wenger interviews).
Me: No comment?
Sangha: Yeah, no comment.
James now have two wins in two, and face Langwith next week.
James 1sts (4-4-1-1): Simon Littler; Mandeep Sangha (C), Ralph Gill, Callum Elliott, James Axford; David Clarkson, Joe Fox, Tom Jobbing, Michael Austin; Gwyn Davies, Andrew Jopson.
Goodricke 1sts (4-1-4-1): Alex Wodley; Gareth Thomas, Robbie Anderson, Matt Carmichael, Joe Duffin; Aaron Sullivan; Connor Denton, Ben Watkins, James Lewis, Luke Sides; Teddy.