EMFC 1 v 2 KCC

October 3rd, 2022 Clifton College Sports Ground

TEAM: Josh, Lee, Ken, Jim, Craig, Jon, Manny, Jason, Morgs, Dan, Draner SUBS: Alex, Ben (Jon's bro), Stu (unused)

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Another beautiful morning awaited Mondays on the perfect home pitch. Despite the injury count still being quite significant, it was still much less of a struggle to get the numbers this week with the help of the EM95 players and Jon's brother being over from France.

Another unknown team lay in wait with KCC having moved up Div 3. 'They seemed like a nicer bunch than the last lot'.

The game got off to quite a slow start and Mondays were not at the their best for the first 20 minutes. The were unable to string more than a few passes together and it was Josh who had to make a couple of saves.

Sherri on the sidelines said...'Josh is man of the match at the moment'! Mondays looked nervous and panicked on the ball. Once they had settled however, they finished the half much stronger and were on the ascendacy.

Morgs had a shot fire over the bar with a neat move and Draner should have made it 1-0 with neat play down the right from Morgs.

Craig and Lee were starting to create a little bit of width which was much needed with a tightly packed midfield area. Jason had a header that somebody should have gambled on and Mondays created a few other chances of note through Dan and Jon as well.

Jim and Ken were excellent at the back not letting anything get past them.

The second half started much the same as the first half had ended with Mondays creating all the chances and having all the possession. After a few minutes (they couldn't keep Ben on the sidelines any longer, especially the distance travelled!) came on for Morgs.

Two minutes later it was unfortunately 1-0 to KCC. The fans on the sideline clearly got into Mondays' heads and let them get on top of them.

KCC had had the ball in the net once (given off side) and it was a similar move to make it 1-0. The fans on the sideline went a bit crazy and it seemed to start a bit of a frenzy. That seemed to also be the start of the foul play. Lee the ref did a good job of calming it all down by bringing in the captains and then eventually sin binning Jason and 'Griff'. Jason hadn't done much wrong and it was more a case of keeping the peace than anything else really.

Once they had come back on, it did seem to calm down a little and it was more a case of having to calm down the KCC fans who were doing their utmost to intimidate the Mondays players and the ref. One fan seemed to start on Lee, threatening him with his dog (classy), when Lee asked him to step back from the sideline to take a throw-in.

Mondays pulled one back when Ben managed to get down the right-hand side and crossed it into Dan who showed great composure and a great turn to fire it home.

Mondays had all the chances from then on and should have put the game to bed.

Unfortunately possession never turned into goals.

The Blues hit the post from another lovely shot from Dan, the bar with a nice header and had numerous other chances saved or got just wide/over. This all led to the inevitable when one of their 'hit and hopes' turned into a mix up at the back and their very persistent striker slotted home into an empty net. 2-1 KCC. Despite all of Mondays' best efforts - it was just one of those days! A special mention goes to Ken who never let anything get past him, Craig who made numerous runs down the left to create any number of chances, and Dan who never stopped running and made a real nuisance of himself all morning.