If ever the boys put a 'backs to the wall' performance in, it was last Sunday when we travelled to Kidlington and beat them 3
- 2. The odds were stacked against us: we were down to a bare bones 11,
Kidlington were on a high after beating Hosrpath and pushing Ducklington close
in recent weeks. They had also recruited strongly over Summer and had a fit and available squad of 16 to choose from. The instruction from the sideline to our boys was
simple: fight. And fight they did.
Playing with the slope in the first half
Cumnor attacked and Nathan almost scored in in the opening minute. There was a
speed and directness to our attacking play which put Kidlington on the back
foot. Nathan relentlessly stretched their excellent centre-halves and, as instructed, looked
for support inside from Adam, Ben, Kyle and Fin. The workrate paid off with an
electric Adam charging a clearance down and bundling the ball over the line. 0
– 1. There was no thought of Cumnor sitting on a lead with Adam again thundering
down the flank, finding space and somehow bending his cross into the goal to continue his superb run of goalscoring form. 0 -
2.
It was an all round team effort, Fyn and Tom organised enough to allow Charlie and and makeshift left-back Harry S to get forward. And all the time,
Joseph and Kyle were in the middle of a dogfight. Suddenly Ben found some space
just outside the box and played a perfect through ball for Nathan to calmly
slot home. 0 - 3. Half-time.
The coaching team were stunned by the
first-half performance and the boys took their drinks with plaudits ringing in
their ears. The instruction for the second-half was simple: fight harder! Looking at the boys, exhausted, carrying knocks, struggling to get air into
their lungs… they knew they’d have to play the half of their lives to secure an unlikely win.
As expected, Kidlington went straight for
us unleashing the quite excellent Kieran from the bench. But our boys dug and
dug and dug, finding strength and energy we didn’t think they had. Kidlington
got a goal back after a legit call about the ball going out of play didn’t go
our way. 1 – 3. Still Kidlington came at
us, earning a free-kick and somehow squeezing it in, 2 – 3. Looking at the
wreckage of the boys there was nothing we could do from the sidelines except
encourage and implore them to keep going. We switched Adam and Ben from wide to
midfield, rotating to get in there and help Joseph and Kyle. Tom took a knock
and started hobbling. Harry's heel was restricting his running. The pressure was intensifying. And then, it happened: the
boys looked into themselves and into the eyes of each other and took a
collective decision that they would not lose. They started playing football and
went on the attack with Harry and Finlay linking beautifully down the left and
putting the pressure back onto the home team. Harry D in
goal grew more authoritative, Fyn kept looking for passes, Tom ran strongly, Kyle tried to unpick the defence with some beautiful passes. We kept hold of the ball
and used it wisely. The final whistle went with Cumnor on the up again. 2 -3.
The boys were heroic, Joseph typified how shattered the boys were and his face embodied the effort all the boys had put in. There was no wild
celebration just sheer exhaustion and pride at a job very well done. This is
the match we will refer too when we ask the boys to show their fighting spirit.
Well done lads, well done indeed!
Player of the Week: we couldn’t choose
because it was a collective performance of sheer determined brilliance.
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