27.01.07 – MID SOLENT B LEAGUE
After finally having a match since the weather interrupted our fixture schedule (for the best part of two months!), it really wasn’t worth waiting for.
It took East Lodge just two minutes to take the lead as they easily found their way through the CFY defence before applying the finish.
1-0 soon became 2 and then 3 goals to the good for the home side as they simply worked the way up the pitch and then shot past the unprotected Karthik Basker to increase the lead further inside the first five minutes. The lack of closing down and failing to even attempt a challenge effectively put the game to bed at such an early stage, this knocked out whatever confidence Chandlers Ford might have had and the visitors never really recovered from this setback.
Liam Godfrey came so close with a sweetly struck volley on the right hand side that rattled the crossbar and deserved to go in.
East Lodge were always in control of the game though and soon went 4-0 up, again punishing a defensive error.
There was a bit of hope for the Blues when David Harris latched on to Thorsten Tramischus’ pass down the left as he coolly sidestepped tackles finding himself with just the keeper to beat, which he did with a smart finish to net his third goal of the season.
Despite the chance of getting back in the game having Lodge on the back foot for the first time, CFY couldn’t make it count and very quickly found themselves conceding a fifth.
On the stroke of half time, Chandlers Ford managed to force a penalty through throwing players into the box to put the pressure on. This paid off as when Thorsten shot the ball struck the hand of an East Lodge defender. Jozef Montigue stepped up to slot the kick to the keepers left to end the half on a high, but the overall performance in the first 35 minutes was far from acceptable.
HALF TIME – East Lodge 5-2 CFY
The second half didn’t get a lot better, with East Lodge always having the upper hand, constantly threatening a defence off-colour and lacking pace. At the other end, CFY rarely created chances.
If it were not for the saves and an inspired performance from Karthik, East Lodge would have almost definitely been into the double figures. As it was they managed to almost walk through to score another two goals.
Towards the end, there was a slight improvement from Chandlers Ford, as they kept Lodge pegged in their half were a good spell where they had several corners in a row to put some pressure on, with little end product.
Miles Hodge played a good pass to Michael Wall from one of the corners, but the shot was comfortably saved. Montigue also got a save out of the keeper but the game was already well and truly over.
Karthik continued to pull off save after save and more than deserved his man of the match award. His dive at full stretch to tip around the past in the last attack of the game was superb and great to see.
It will take a lot to bounce back from this result but there is still a lot of football to be played.
