Match Report

Heanor Colliers (1) v Derby Ams (2)

Date: 13/10/07
Team: 1sts
Match Type: League
Venue: Away
Opposition: Heanor Colliers

With England rugby team kicking off later in the day, all eyes were momentarily turned to watch the line up of the mighty Ams against Heanor Colliers, a team that we have already played and lost to in a preseason friendly, were fourth in the league with games in hand on second place and on their pitch. They don’t come much tougher than this!

Mike –Dom – Jolley made only his second start for the mighty Ams this season as sweeper. To make his life harder we put him alongside Lee – I like to handle the ball – Bradly and Ady – serial whinger – Colley. In midfield was the Singo holding, with Swain and Gary – Debbie – Magee forming what is now becoming quite a formidable grouplet of players, most notably because we haven’t lost when these three have played together. On the right flank we had Michael – Jeeves – Butler and on the left a return to the first team for Kelvin – rampant rabbit – Rampton. Upfront we had Sam Marshall and James Whittaker for the second week running, impressing after last weeks frivolities with them scoring five between them.

The match got underway and immediately we could tell why they were doing so well in the league. They kept and worked the ball very well, with us being nothing more than spectators in the first twenty minutes although they created no real attempts at goal.

The first goal of the game went against the grain with us scoring. The ball was worked to Sam who saw Kelvin arriving at the back post, squared it to him to which Kelvin, on the volley, put back across goal and into the net. It was only after the match that I came to realise that the ball rebounded of none other than the referee to assist Kelvin in his goal. 1-0.

The goal settled us a bit. We started to get the ball under control more and the onslaught that had so far taken place, seemed to subside. The rest of the first half passed without too much in the way of chance being created at either but with a fierce battle to rival a Lord of the Rings fight sequence was being fought in midfield which, on balance, the mighty Ams probably won by a small margin.

At half time Swain took us to one-side and reminded us that in the preseason friendly we had let it slip in the second half so high levels of alertness would be needed. We had worked hard to be in the lead and didn’t want to concede a sloppy goal to allow them back in the game.

The second half started and with a game plan in mind we had to stick to what we were told to do. This seemed to work very well and pressure from set pieces was nullified most notably by Bradders and the Singo. It was a set piece that Heanor scored from. A floated free kick came in to which their tall defender climbed the highest and powered a header into the roof of the net. It was the only header we had lost all game so blame cant really be placed on anyone person. 1-1.

With the score tied we went in search of a winner. When I say we, I mean Sam and Gary who between them could’ve ran home with the amount of grass they covered in the second half. Most notably ten minutes from time when Gary picked the ball up in the centre of midfield ran to the right wing, to which Sam took position on the last mans shoulder and drew him away for Gary to continue his run going. He shrugged of a challenge to go through one-on-one with their keeper (at this time I would like to stop you for a moment. Gary has been in superb form this season only with his finishing in one-on-one situations being in doubt to which he has come into quite a bit of flack for. Finishing which he has promised, one night in a drunken stupor in Credos, to make amends for), Gary slid the ball past the keeper and into the net to grab the winner. You could feel the warmth from his smug face from the other side of the pitch. 2-1

Substitutions were made with Twedds replacing Kelvin, Dibbsy replacing Butler and Carl replacing the Singo. All came in and did a good job which has been the story of the season so far – quality replacing quality.

They still had chance for one last effort which saw one of the opposition players forcefully drill a ball towards goal which was destined for the back of the net. Our keeper saw the danger early and in the blink of an eye covered the area of goal the ball was bound for, padded the ball with his first touch giving him an easy claim second time around, making it a far easier save than it could’ve been keeping us in the lead. Some say the sign of a quality keeper is the ability to keep calm and make the hard stuff look easy.

To recap, the defence and midfield gave a solid display against a team that will score goals, the wingers had to be defensively minded when it isn’t their natural thought with them doing more in our side of the pitch than theirs, and with the defence and midfield being forced so far back the strikers had a lot of ground to cover to hold the ball up. All areas worked well together and team unification was apparent.

Special mention to Mike Jolley as he was quality throughout and showed great awareness and control with his passing, was strong in the challenge and talked us through the game. Lovely!

BONK of the match: Kelvin Rampton – in the first half, when under no pressure, tried to control the ball with his furthest left stud on his right boot, subsequently let the ball slip under his foot and out of play. I’ve seen better traps in a low budget Scooby-Doo flick. And he would’ve gotten away with it too if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!

Man or the match: Ady Colley – contested everything that came into the box and is starting to adapt to the role of defender very well but, again, more importantly it was he who asked the referee who the man of the match was!