Match Report
Derby Rolls Royce Leisure Reserves (1) v Derby Ams (1)
| Player | Rating | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Blackburn | 7 | |
| 2 | Duncan Yarnall | 8 | |
| 3 | Adam Morris | 8 |  |
| 5 | Andrew Singleton | 8 | |
| 6 | Ady Colley | 8 |  |
| 7 | James Derbyshire | 7 | |
| 8 | Grant Strickson | 6 | |
| 9 | Tom Broughton | 8 | |
| 10 | Richard Swain | 8 | |
| 13 | Carl Whittaker | 5 |
Date: 03/09/07
Team: 1sts
Match Type: League
Venue: Away
Opposition: Derby Rolls Royce Leisure Reserves
Hello again faithful readers. This time our outings were against Derby Rolls Royce Reserves. A team that were below us in the league but had only played two games so a decent match should have been on the cards.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
The starting line-up included some changes that saw Singo return to midfield in the holding role (our fourth so far this season), Broughton get a start up front alongside Swain (creating the slowest partnership we had to offer) and Derbyshire start right wing back. Bradders returned from being sidelined in the last game to form an unchanged back three for the third game running.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
The match got underway and what appeared to be a new-look Derby Rolls Royce team had the better of the play in the opening ten minutes. Some fluent football and clever interplay between their two strikers forced the best save of the match early on. Their striker got put through one-on-one, rounded our keeper but was forced too wide for a shooting angle, had to cut back in and again was confronted by our keeper. He hit the ball low and hard towards goal only to be denied by a fine diving left handed save by none other than our defender Bradders. The most blatant handball you could have experienced in a game of football (baring a dirty Argentinean cheat scoring with his hand and then referencing it to an act of god) but the referee was blinded by two opposing players and waved play-on (much to the delight of Bradders who would have surely walked).
Dibsy missed from a yard.
After the let off, we pulled our socks up and got the ball on the deck and started dictating play. Swift interchanges between Singo and Grant, forcing the ball out wide for Derbyshire to run onto who whipped in an inch perfect cross for which Colley missed his fourth one-on-one in four matches by putting the ball over the bar. You can’t argue with stats Ady!
Dibsy missed from a yard.
Shortly after the ever energetic Colley got pole axed on the edge of the opposing box. The ball was spotted by Morris who composed himself and bent one round the wall and into the near bottom corner to continue his impressive run of form, most notably from set pieces. During the Morris celebrations, after scoring, he turned round to hi-five Singo and subsequently fell over backwards in an act of pure imbalance. Roly-poly time! 1-0.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
The rest of the first half saw the mighty Ams in control with constant pressure and were always asking questions, most notably Derbyshire on the right flank who tore his opposing player apart with well timed runs and crossing of the highest quality and the two front men who kept dropping deep to get the ball but to no avail. The half ended with another penalty claim turned down. The ball broke to their player in the box only to be kicked by Colley after the ball had been played out wide. Fair play to their player though he didn’t make a meal of it when he could have.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
Swainey calmed us all down at half time and tried to get the message across that we have got to try and kill teams off and this was a perfect chance to show us we can do it.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
Kick off in the second half. We shaped up in the same way; they made a few changes being forced to take off their left back that had a torrid time of things in the first half. Despite lining up in the same way we had lost momentum and the game turned more into a two horse race than the Redrum versus Skeggy seaside pony of the first half.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
The ball seemed to be drawn to the midfield and spent most of its time in this area. Singo doing well to brake down their movement and when he missed it, it was met by Bradders at the back, who gave another calming performance. Neither team looked likely to score. But this wasn’t to be the case.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
After suffering continued pressure down our right flank, the ball was played square to a midfielder who found himself with more time on the edge of our box than it took Hitler to invade France, picked out his corner and put the ball there. 1-1.
Dibsy missed from a yard.
This was the kick in the arse that we all needed. Our play went from mediocre to exquisite in the same time it takes Twedds to tie his shoe laces (about ten minutes). We dominated possession, and created half chance after half chance. Broughton had a few efforts but couldn’t quite seem strike the ball true. We couldn’t quite seem to get another goal that we had talked about at half time.
Then came a moment of pure inspiration. The ball after being saved by their keeper rebounded off the bar and dropped almost on the goal-line (let me stop you in time for a moment. I may not have quite got across the distance the ball was from the back of the net. Imagine the width of a football, halve it then halve it again. This is the distance that the ball fell from the line. A strong wind would have blown the ball in) only to be met by Dibsy who left foot volleyed the ball over the bar and over the road behind the pitch and into the car park of the factory across the road. It was actually harder to miss than score, but Dibsy found a way!
This was also the last action of the game. We snatched a draw from the jaws of victory. Two points lost really but another good performance from the back three who are averaging a goal conceded a game but are still in look of that illusive first clean sheet. It’ll come.
BONK of the match – Richard Derbyshire – played really well all game until ‘THAT’ moment. Statically less goal scoring ability than a gust of wind or a bad bounce.
Man of the match – Adrian Coley. Covered every blade of grass on the pitch and was never shy to put his boot in and make a challenge.