After the near miss
against Oxford Irish, Cumnor were keen to continue our great run of form and
finish the league programme on a high. Kidlington however, would be a tough
challenge. Recent games have been incredibly close and our opposition were
confident after pushing Ducklington all the way in both the cup and the league.
They also had a two man advantage. In temperatures in the the mid to high 20s,
Cumnor’s 11 available players had all the odds stacked against us.
We set up with a 4-1-4-1
formation with Will in at centre-half and Tom the lone striker.
From kick off Cumnor seemed confident and in control, using the width of
the pitch and great movement to dominate the early exchanges. Ben and Joe
linked nicely through the middle and spread play cleverly to bring in Finlay,
Nathan and Adam ahead of them. Charlie held his flank well
and Harry S (or, wrong pitch Harry) overlapped on the left flank. Rory
and Will marshalled the play from the back, winning headers and playing
out with some lovely clipped passes. Tom had the thankless task of
keeping Abu occupied up front and proved an excellent focal point in the brutal
heat.
The deserved
breakthrough came when Adam swept a corner in for Will to leap
high and smash a header in. Cumnor then went into overdrive, playing quick
intricate football and creating chance after chance. Joe won a ball, fed
Ben who linked sweetly with Finlay before finding Nathan,
sneaking through the middle to flick the ball over the keeper. 2-0. His
second goal was even better. Harry and Finlay outfoxed Kidlington
on the flank with a little bit of showboating before Nathan again, found
himself through on goal. He spun, pirrouetted around the ball and finished
brilliantly. It was Zola-sque in execution according to Tim (sorry, it’s been
so long since Man U scored a goal of any real quality it’s difficult to find a
comparison.) With a few minutes left we were awarded a free-kick 25 yards out
on the left. There was no doubt what Adam would do but he still did it,
curling a superb shot into the top corner. 4-0.
The half-time chat
wasn’t needed, just conserve energy and relax. We made a positional switch with
Tom and Will and Will soon started tormenting the defence
almost scoring a superb solo goal after a long, twisting run. Kidlington came
back hard in the second-half but on balance of play, we could have scored more.
Kidlington should have scored but for a wonderful full length diving save from Harry tipping
the ball onto the top of the bar and over. The whistle went, the win secured.
Kidlington could yet finish above us in the league but we’ve won two out three
league matches against them this season so bragging rights are ours.
Player of the Week: each boy contributed so a collective award to
all. Well done.
