 | 0:2 |  |
Carshalton Athletic Greens faced the Staines Lammas Youth FC Whites in a division 1 match to be played on Staines 4G pitch.
First half
The match started with Staines attacking from kick-off, much of the first 5 minutes was spent in the Carshalton half. Carshalton was soaking up the pressure but seemingly unable to mount any serious attacks of our own. Eventually Carshalton created a chance which was forced out for a corner, the corner was defended by Staines with relative ease.
Carshalton were nearly undone by a poor back pass, it sent a Staines player clean through on goal but the Carshalton player worked hard and managed to time a tackle well to win the ball back. It was a great recovery.
Carshalton counter attacked and found themselves through on goal before it was called as offside. From the free kick Staines forced a good save and won a corner but nothing came from it. In quick succession Staines found themselves through one on one, a well timed save by my boy was irrelevant as the ref called play back due to Staines being ruled to have been off-side.
Carshalton finally had a sustained period of attack, the first two attacks failed to result in a shot on target and even subsequent attacks created only half chances which failed to test the Staines goalkeeper.
Staines played a long ball which was collected by my boy, the Staines attacker, not for the first time, shoulder barged him whilst running past. This seemed to distract my boy who ended up taking an extra step outside of the box with the ball. The indirect free kick was hit high and wide.
This seemed to fire up Carshalton who again created several chances, whilst none of them resulted in a goal they seemed to be growing into the game. The half ended 0-0 with the game too close to call.
Second half
The half time team talk from the manager identified a couple of areas where the team could try something different and to the players credit they came up with their own plan of attack. They set about attacking and dominating the midfield, eventually they overwhelmed Staines who fouled a Carshalton player in the box. The penalty was slotted home in the bottom right corner.
Despite the goal Carshalton continued with pressure and searched for a second goal. Unable to find it Staines started to get back into the game forcing some good saves out of my Boy. Carshalton were working hard in all areas of the pitch. The game was starting to even out with end to end attacking, a great shot from Carshalton went just over the bar and Staines hit the outside of the woodwork.
The game was entertaining but tense at the same time. Either team seemed capable of scoring at an time. As it was Carshalton would score the next goal, some good build up play was followed up with a shot from 25 yards out. The ball had power, curl and placement leaving the Staines goalkeeper with no chance.
Staines, to their credit never gave up and Carshalton were looking tired. Despite this Carshalton kept up the hard work and saw the game out. It finished 2-0 and continued the good start to the season.
