DORSET INTERMEDIATE CUP - ROUND 5
SATURDAY 15TH DECEMBER 2007
CROSSWAYS 5 - VERWOOD TOWN RESERVES 4

Lost 4 - 5 Half time: 1-3
Scorers: Steve Reeves (2), Andy Martin, Shaun Gale.

Team

1. Colin Randall
2. John Homer
3. Liam Morrison
4. Lee Pidgley
5. James Murray
6. Martin Newbury
7. Karl Foster
8. Steve Reeves
9. Will Cobley
10. Andy Martin
11. Craig Rogers
12. Shaun Gale ( for Craig Rogers 82 mins)

Report

The headline should read Christmas comes early and that would be fitting for both teams!

Despite having a hugely depleted team, we set off to Crossways who are lying 3rd in Dorset division 2. On a bitterly cold but dry day, the pitch was soft but playable. We started off in excellent style, passing the ball about, moving well at a high tempo and you could see they were on the back foot and nervous. Young Steve Reeves then popped up in their area to rifle home left footed from 8 yards and we were deservedly 1 up.

For the next half an hour we just stopped playing. We gave the ball away, there was no structure at all, and perhaps we thought it was going to be too easy? We then though managed to donate 3 goals to them, the first was a deflected shot which appeared initially to be more concern to the corner flag than our goal, the second was caused by an awful clearance on the edge of our box and the 3rd was allowing their striker too much space allowing him to chip Colin in goal. Half time couldn't come quick enough, although for the last 5 minutes we came back into the game.

Half time team talk was vociferous to say the least, and it seemed to work. It took us 30 minutes to pull level, Steve Reeves beat the offside trap to get his second and then did the same again only to be foiled by the Keeper, but Andy Martin was following up to slot home the rebound.

However, we keep pushing forward to get the winner and got caught cold 2 against 2 at the back and were 4-3 down with 10 minutes to go. Last throw of the dice was to put on Veteran striker Shaun Gale and with his first touch we were back level at 4 a piece. 8 minutes to go before extra time you would have thought the game would be closed down, but no, we had one last present to give them and with 4 minutes to go they broke away and scored again.

Merry Christmas!