Team Lineup: Josh Bancroft, Hamish Campbell, Iain Atherton, Liam Brown, Sam Henderson, Josh Dowson, Harry McGuire, Christian Aither (c), Jordan Fogg, Cameron Edgar, Sam Mann
Substitutes: Lewis Malcolm, Jamie Barron, Max Tennant, Lewis Timms
After what felt like forever sitting on the bus on the way to Redcar & Cleveland college we got ready and were ready to kick off within 10 minutes. After losing the toss and their captain choosing to kick off the first half we soon realised it was going to be a game where we spent the majority defending and trying to keep our shape as a team. They began strongly and were stroking the ball around quickly and always making space for each other to try and find a way through our solid back line. The three central midfielders of Dowson, McGuire and Aither had their work cut out as their number 10 and 4 were linking up nicely and bringing the rest of their team into the game. From the start Brown and Henderson were really solid at the back halting every attack that came their way. However, with the centre backs constantly under pressure from balls through the defence it wasn’t long before one of their passes came off and their striker was able to round Bancroft, who was unlucky to not be able to get his hand to the ball, and make it 1-0 to them. With them having a lot of the ball early on and them taking a fairly early lead we could have given up and let the goals flood in but we stuck together as a team and kept battling on. It also didn’t help us with the fact that every 50/50 decision was being given their way by the referee and at times felt like it was 12 against 11.We knew we could match them physically and Dowson and the two centre backs were challenging well to win our side the ball and Aither and McGuire were doing well to try and get the ball to the wide men of Fogg and Edgar who were when they could getting past their full back and trying to get a ball in to Sam Mann who was looking lively. After the majority of the first half being played in the middle of the park Sam Mann was unlucky that the ball over the top by Bancroft just went through to the goalkeeper before he could meet it. We went into half time 1-0 down after defending well and preventing the opposition from opening up a bigger lead.
At half time dave got the hairdryer out and made two changes replacing McGuire and Fogg with Tennant and Timms. He also gave Christian the task of trying to stop their number 10 from dictating the game like he did for most of the first half. After halftime we came out much more confident and were seeing much more of the ball with their most influential players quiet because of the high energy of the whole side. We began stretching their back line with Edgar and Timms running beyond their fullbacks and causing their back line problems with some good crossing with Mann making the defenders know of his presence pushing their two centre backs about. Our effort was eventually awarded when Max Tennant did well to win the ball and play it into Mann who sent Timms down the right hand side who did well to get a cross in and find Dowson on the edge of the six yard box who guided the ball past their goalkeeper and got us level. Shortly after that Dave made his third substitution bringing off Aither and replacing him with Malcolm to try and get another goal to win the game. However, shortly after they got the ball into a dangerous area and for the first time all game a usually solid back four were let down by a lack of communication between each other and their striker was able to nick the ball away from Campbell and smash the ball past the helpless Bancroft. With the game very much end to end and chances coming at each end it was Redcar who nearly doubled their lead when their winger cut in and ran through the middle and forced a very good save from Bancroft who saved and held well to his right.
With around 20 minutes to go we started dominating the game creating chance after chance with the two wingers putting in some very good crosses we were just unable to get that equalising goal. Malcolm then had a blocked shot from the edge of the box after making space for himself well. Now that we had the momentum Redcar couldn’t handle the pace and strength of Sam Mann and his commitment paid off when a ball through the defence meant it was a race to the ball between Mann and the goalkeeper where Mann came on top and slid the ball underneath the keeper into the bottom left corner. After this Dave made his last change bringing on the solid Jamie Barron in place of Dowson and put Sam Henderson up front and moved Malcolm into centre mid to try and push on to get the winning goal.
Once we got that equalising goal it was clear who wanted the win more out of the two teams with Mann firstly unlucky rattling the post from close range before trying to get the ball across the goal to Malcolm where the goalkeeper was able to collect the ball. With minutes to go Sam Henderson went through on goal and many of us thought Sam Henderson was going to win us the game but the versatile front man got caught in two minds and ended up dinking the ball straight into the goalkeeper's hands. With the game coming towards the end Sam Henderson was played over the top and the whistle was shockingly blown. This summed up the game to be honest as an excellent battling performance against a very good side was made even harder by some of the refereeing decisions given against us. But all in all this was a very good point for us and shows how strong our whole squad is.
Man of the Match: Liam Brown - Came up against very good strikers which he dealt with well all game and never panicked when on the ball and helped link the defence with the midfield very well. Even though he is the only first year in our back four, he controlled the back line well with Henderson and if it wasn’t for him and his centre back partner we wouldn’t have came away with a draw.
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