|
Fuchu No Mori Monday 17th September,
The Vags and Embassy picked up today where they left off last season with a repeat of the tight, hard fought but very fairly contested game that marked last season’s league encounter (finished 2-2 thanks to Adrian’s last minute equaliser). Indeed the result was more or less the only difference today.
The wind and bouncy pitch made a flowing game impossible, particularly when the hustling of the respective midfields gave players very little time on the ball. To their credit, both teams still tried to play football for most of the game, though the long ball was more in evidence (and not a stupid tactic) than on the Hachioji artificial.
Alex was his usual industrious and at times uncontainable self – after 30 seconds receiving, beating his man and sending a shot off the post in a fluid movement. Not too long after he wriggled a way for a far from easy one on one but their keeper was up to the task, holding a soft finish. Chances for the rest of the half were seldom clear cut and the Embassy may have just edged things on points with the wind behind them. Often they played it forward to be nicely knocked off by one of their forwards, picked up going forward by the midfield, knocked again and……..cut out. Just too difficult to keep the flow going in the conditions, especially with Stevie Glenn performing so well in the centre. When they tried to knock it over the top Taylor was excellent – coming out quickly and decisively to mop up.
Things started to get tougher for the Vags as injuries mounted and with only 2 on the sidelines a bit of shuffling was necessary. Promised rests never materialised and the heat started to take its toll.
The second half saw a renewed Vags all the same and with the wind behind them they really started to take control. Maz ‘no heading - doctors orders’ was phenomenal in the air and for a long period the Embassy forgot what the Vags half looked like. There were certainly a few half chances – Alex got down the left a few times without ever producing the killer cross and a few shots flying in with none of them really testing the keeper. With around 20 minutes gone though, a bit of defensive indecision was punished when Alex scored from the right side of the 6 yard box. The Vags could then have finished the game off when a curling free kick from around 20 yards shaved the bar and Simon also looped one across the face of the goal. Francis, in his best game yet for the Vags, also fired in a couple of long rangers to no avail.
The Embassy were certainly not buried though, and caused the Vags a few dodgy moments – one chance in particularly sticks out – a skewed volley from 12 yards out after excellent work down the left.
The Vags held out though to get the first points of the season on the board. A great performance all round and Simon summed things up for me in the second half when he beat two men, was tackled, got it back and beat another, was tackled and then got it back again before beating a fourth man and getting in a shot. (though the shot was crap…)
I spoke last season about the Vags spirit and it was in evidence in spades today – Lynsdey turning up after driving all night and having 3m 17secs of sleep – Wayne dashing off the pitch with seconds remaining to get to work and Neil likewise playing even though he had an important job interview later in the day.
Oh, and Richie forgot his jeans.
Report by Richard Straughan
|