25 Feb'24 Away vs Knollmead

Earl Russell - 28/04/24
Final Score - 1-4

Report: Burnsie

MOTM: JB (The old, good looking, one)
Starting 11: Phil D, Ben A, JB, Baldy, Dom, Craig, Sean, Matt R, Thimble, Burnsie, Ben S
Subs: Stevie G, Wayne, Andy, Manny

Pre-game, we got a message from our trusted weatherman, Andy, confirming that it had been raining all night which was news to literally no-one. 

Ewell turned up with a squad of 15, 13 of which turned up on time (1 of which missed kick off entirely) and began our usual “warm” up of taking shots and passing it around but not actually warming any of our muscles up. One thing to be noted from the warm-up is that JB (who ends the day as MOTM) scored 2 on the bounce…the shocking thing is that they were both intentional, bloody good finishes and in the net we were shooting at (rather than an own goal). Gaffer Burnsie was feeling confident. 

The confidence was rightly placed in all honesty. Ewell started the game the stronger of the two sides and created a number of good opportunities, to mind Thimble had two good chances - one put through by Burnsie and one by Matt R. With Ewell missing their chances, it was clear that Earl Russel were going to grow into their game and their front 3 are all very capable players. They didn’t test Phil in the net until around the 20th minute mark (they had had about 7 shots by this point, none of which tested Phil, some of which are still orbiting the sun) and he continued his excellent recent form for a non goalkeeper playing in goal. 

Phils save re-energised Ewell and after some good build up play across the back line and midfield, Ewell had a corner. Now, any regular reader will be more than aware that we are not the most potent when it comes to attacking corners. Was today different? Well, no, not the first time as the corner beat everyone. The second corner however, was very different. It hit the first man but, for once, the first man was Craig and his flick was blocked by an Earl defender, looping the ball 40 yards up in the air. Underneath the dropping ball, around the line of the penalty spot, was a certain Burnsie. As the ball was dropping, Burnsie was thinking “don’t balloon this a million miles over the bar” and, much to his own surprise (not least his teammates) his volley went straight into the top left hand corner leaving the keeper with absolutely no chance. Burnsie wheeled away in celebration and, after almost 2 years since his last goal (because of his knee injury not because he’s useless), celebrated far more modestly than he should have done.*

The goal did, however, rejuvenate Earl Russel and if not for a couple more saves from Phil and some absolutely superb defending by the back 4 (a special mention to JB on this front, without any doubt the best I have seen him play for us) Earl would have equalised within the next 5 minutes. Alas, it did only take about another 5 minutes for them to equalise though. Ewell were hit by a strong counter-attack from Earl but Dom stood the defender up superbly and won the ball back. Unfortunately, Dom was almost pulled to the ground immediately afterwards (ref didn’t see it) and their shorter attacker layed it off to one of their two impressive strikers and he hit a shot from the edge of the box with the outside of his foot that bent round the oncoming Ewell defender and squirmed through Phil. 

Halftime and 1-1. Probably a little harsh on Ewell. 

I’ll be honest, I don’t really remember a huge amount from the second half so this part of the report is going to be a little bit shorter. 

Halftime brought some changes and the half started with Ewell all over Earl Russel. From memory we had at least 5 BIG opportunities to take the lead but failed to capitalise on any of them. The misses were through a combination of wayward finishing and one particularly excellent save from their keeper. We were playing very well and the football was very impressive for the first 15 minutes of the half.

As has been the case this season Ewells profligacy** in front of goal would come back to bite them in the backside. Our impressive first 15 minutes of the second half seemed to go out the window almost instantly and we lost the ball in the middle of park and the ball was played through to another of their young-ish strikers leaving Baldy chasing down to try and prevent it being a simple 1v1 with Phil. Unfortunately, Baldy couldn’t prevent it and the striker calmly slotted past Phil. About 5 minutes later Earl won a corner and, without instructions to do so, all the Ewell players decided to stand still and not attack the ball as it came into the box leaving one of their players with an unchallenged header at the far post. JB did his utmost to prevent it going in but it clearly had gone over the line. 3-1. 

The next 25 minutes or so passed by without many chances being created (as far as I can remember anyway) but Matt and Manny got a foothold in midfield, Sean and Baldy looked comfortable at the back. The issue was we couldn’t get the ball forward and get it to stick up there. Our passing was off and it meant we just couldn’t create anything. 

Just before the end of the game, Sean miscued a passback to Phil and their striker nipped in, stole the ball and slotted home. Can happen to anyone. 

A good performance at points. The big difference was that Earl took their chances and we didn’t. It was an enjoyable game to play in however, played in the right spirit (hard but fair) and we look forward to playing Earl again next season. 

* Some poetic licence has been used in describing this goal and the subsequent celebration

** Didn’t even use a Thesaurus for this