When i woke up on saturday morning i had 2 feelings about the day ahead. Firstly it was the first time i'd felt sober since the Sarling wedding! And also had a very good feeling about the game ahead as i felt we had the strongest squad of players so far this season.
I said to the players before the game i was very confident in the team we had out, hence why i was happy to put myself on the bench!!!
 
Now, on to the match.
 
I thought we started the game very quickly and were on top right from the off, Malc & I had stressed how important it was to set the tempo very early and dictate the game. This is exactly what happened and after about 20mins Sam Holman scored a very well taken goal after great work from Gilo and also an excellent through ball.
 
5 minutes later we got a free kick about 25 yards out, Christian (Ravanelli) Macrae stepped up and struck an absoltely magnificent free kick right in the top corner, the keeper didn't even move!!!! Great goal mate.
 
Then for some reason we seemed to slightly take our foot of the pedal and were a bit sloppy for the remainder of the half, although Lingfield didn't really threaten our goal except from a header that went just wide of the goal about 5mins before the break.
 
HALF TIME 2-0 to the good.
 
During the break Malc & I said we needed to begin the 2nd half the same way we started the first half, which we did.
We dominated the game again, especially in midfield. Ravanelli and Holman were terrific in midfield, winning every tackle and putting pressure on the opposition and forcing them into mistakes.
 
After an hour or so the heat got to a few of the players, so decided to replace Handsy with Leo and Joe with myself (Joe rather subbed himself tho but shouting "Roy i'm pretty Fu.... (eeer, Tiired!!!)
Leo could of easily had a hat trick with the time he was on, a bit unlucky but shows how strong our squad is as we had another 4-5 players that were missing and will be knocking on the door next week!!... (A good problem to have though!)
 
They had one real chance in the 2nd half which Dairy saved at a very important part of the game and think gave us a kick up the bum we needed to realize the game wasn't won.......Yet!
 
Late on Mat Fisher scored a couple of great goals with expertly taken finishes, although i would like to think it was all in the delivery by our very skillfull and good looking left winger. (Oh, wait a minute, that was me!!! :o)
 
To summarize, I thought we were outstanding on the day, Dairy in goal instilled confidence in everyone at the back with his great chat. Back four was superb, Stu Powell (MoM) and Conor in particular i thought were immense.
 
Midfield four worked very hard, with Joe & Ben on the wings making good runs and i thought Ravanelli & Holman were amazing and either one of them could have easily picked up the MoM.
 
Upfront Handsy worked his socks off and Mat's movement was excellent.
 
Well played lads, good to get our 1st 3 points, but lets not get too carried away, they had half their team missing so i think that could be our easiest game of the season.
But, if we play like we did for the 1st 20mins of the 1st half and the 2nd half, we should have a very successful season!
 
Bring on next week, Who needs Jimmy Beale?!! ;o)