Round 4 - VS IBU Piglets, April 22, Wakefield Park

Write-up by Declan
Elite 4 - 0 IBU

Pre-match.
The omens were good when no stupid emails were sent on game day, the squad turned up on time bolstered by some of the Arms stalwarts and it was a cracking evening with no wind. Adam also remembered the line-up correctly and there was no late changes. WTF was going on?


First half
After last weeks mud fest the Elite got stuck in straight from the whistle not giving the Piglets any time on the ball and dominating possession. After 5 mins Dec took it down on the edge of the box, cut inside and smashed it off the crossbar and Niall laughed his ass off. Jay then took his turn with a thunderbastard of a shot that nearly broke the bar.
We were dominating possession, getting the ball up early to CJ and Clem who were holding it up and getting it wide to the wingers. Saji seemed to earn about 7 corners in the first half an hour which generally resulted in a shit corner to the edge of the box and nothing happening.
The PIglets were relying on long balls to their speedsters up front but they weren’t really causing any problems. NIall was regretting not bringing his smokes with him
Ollie came on and instantly changed the game was clear through one-on-one with the keeper but selflessly passed to CJ who somehow sidefooted it wide. Maybe he was thinking “I’d never pass in that situation”.  
Finally the breakthrough happened came after another shit corner found Jay at the edge of the box and he smashed a volley past the helpless keeper. 2 minutes later and we had our second. Some neat setup ended up with Adam assisting CJ (with a mishit shot??) and CJ toepoked into the bottom corner

Second half:
The second half started a bit sloppily and we lost a bit of intensity and probably a little of the outstanding quality we had shown in the first half. They get a little more possession without really creating anything. NIall was definitely busier showing the handling ability of a snake by hoofing several clearances out when he could have caught the ball.

We were still creating the better chances but it wasn’t until we broke from their corner led by Damo which ended up with Ollie slotting it away at the back post. Game over!.
Other notable events in the second half included Damo performing a bellyflop trapping of the ball, Rory poleaxing one of their players after a missed header, Everybody abusing the ref for being terrible and Gav shouldering the ball clear for a corner.
Clem finally got what he deserved when he dispatched a shot into the bottom corner from about 20 metres. I think he might have smiled.


Points:
F**k me this is hard. I only remembered I was doing the write up when I got subbed 10 mins from the end so I’m just going to spread them out. No one really had a bad game

Jay - 1 - Cracking goal and terrorised their defence. Where was this guy last week? May need some fitness advice from Clem.

Clem - 1 - It didn’t drop for him first half but that didn’t stop him running his bollox off for the team linking up play and finally got off the mark for the season.

CJ - 1 - Led the line brilliantly and took his goal well

Adam - 1 - Bossed midfield with crucial assist for the second. Won 2 headers in the second half that actually ended up going to a teammate. Maybe his 50p piece head is losing its edges.

Damo - 1 - Same as normal. Crunching tackles and wandering upfield

Jase - 1 -  Cool as a cucumber and distributed brilliantly