Centenary Cup Quarter Final

Goalscorers: Matt Jackson (2), Alex Sampson (1), Garo Heath (1), James Croft (1)

MOM: Craig Thorley

Last week saw Earlsfield miss the chance the seal 3 point against a weak AFC Cubo. This week, the boys needed to find their scoring boots as they went into the cup quarter final.

With the pitch at Clapham Common, we knew we weren’t ever going to be playing the silkiest of football. Peckham must have heard about our tekkers though, as their camera man was up and ready to film the match.

A short huddle of “ARE YOU HUNGRY” from the opposition manager to his players and we were good to go.

The game started off rather scrappy as neither team could get a grip of the ball, but Harry Smithson stepped up in the 15th minute with a run through on goal narrowly missing. This was then followed up with Alex Lee hitting the post down the right and yet another go from Harry which was a delightful left footed curled shot from 25 yards.

After starting to take control of the game, the ball came through the middle on a counter attack and Matt Jackson managed to slide the ball through to Alex Sampson who hit home for 1-0. This was then quickly followed up with a corner piece where three players shots were cleared off the line, but new boy Garo managed to hit on the fourth and put us 2-0 up. A rather easy first half came to a close.

Another long team huddle from Peckham as he looked to motivate the boys and come out firing to claw that 2-0 scoreline back. Second half began….

We changed into a 3-5-2 in the second half to try and control the ball in the middle. The boys didn’t really fancy it though, and we stepped down to their level and allowed them to have some time on the ball in the final third. A few half chances, but nothing Rafa Portezan couldn’t deal with! It wasn’t until the 75th minute that we found our form again, and with Alex Lee breaking free on the right, he drilled the ball across to James Croft who tapped in for his 11th this season. This was shortly followed by a counter down the middle of the park, with Matt Jackson hitting the ball from 25 yards out into the top bins! 4-0!. We sealed the game with a cross from Matt Gill, who landed into Matt Jacksons head, to the keeper, back to Matt and then back into the goal. A bit of luck for us, a 5-0 win and we’re though the semi finals!