PICKFORD CUP QUARTER FINAL
SATURDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2007
ST ANDREWS 0 - VERWOOD TOWN RESERVES 2

Team

1. Colin Randall
2. Dean Evans
3. Liam Morrison
4. Lee Pidgley
5. James Murray
6. Gary Martin
7. Pete Eyre
8. Steve Reeves
9. Matt Newbury
10. Andy Martin
11. Tristan Dorey
12. Karl Foster ( for Steve Reeves 75 mins)
13. Will Cobley (for Liam Morrison 30 mins)
14. John Homer ( for Dean Evans 65 mins)

Report

Drawn away again in this Cup quarterfinal, we visited St Andrews who play in Bournemouth league Div 3.

Wet and windy conditions were likely to make the game difficult and we did not disappoint, putting in an awful display.

The opposition were poor due to them missing a number of players who had gone up to watch Chelsea scrape home against the mighty West Ham!

Within the first 5 minutes you could see that this was potentially going to be a stroll. A number of gilt-edged chances were created and missed and we started then performing as individuals rather than as a team. After about 20 minutes with the referee missing a host of fouls, the game started to become aggressive as players saw they could get away with things. Many of our players were caught with late challenges and one such resulted in Liam having to be substituted by Will Cobley. After the half-hour we took the lead with Pete Eyre ghosting in at the near post to glance header a corner taken by Dean Evans.

There was no format to the play from either side, however something woke the Ref up and he then booked one of their players for a challenge on Tristan. Their goalkeeper argued that we were taking the free kick from the wrong place, obviously said something wrong and was red carded. Did we then take control of the game and let the floodgates open?

No.

Second half it was difficult to work out which team had 10 men! We were against the wind and rather than keep the ball on the deck, we resorted to long ball tactics, which just resulted in the ball coming back into our half. Fortunately, Gary Martin and Colin Randall in goal were having good games; John Homer also did well when he came on at right back.

St Andrews made a couple of chances but their finishing was woeful. With the rain starting to lash down, they pushed the ball over the top and an excellent challenge from Gary resulted in their centre forward remonstrating with the Ref about a foul. End result was that they were down to 9 players. A couple of others got booked during this half and with 5 minutes to go we scored our second. The ball was fed up to Andy Martin on the half way line, who laid it into the path of Matt Newbury who approached their goal, cut inside the covering defender and then wrong footed their keeper with a placed shot inside the post. Their right back argued that Andy was offside. Goal stood, them down to 8 players.

Final whistle went and Galer and I went for a well-deserved pint along with our wet and cold supporters.