Lyde Green Vets 0 v 2 Easton Monday

February 19th, 2023 Lyde Green

TEAM: Josh, Lee, Si F, Andy, Craig, Jamie, Jimmy Cooke (ringer), Arron, Si R, Morgs, Dan

SUB - Stef (ringer)

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The first Easton Monday game of 2023 was not what was expected. A tough game in tough conditions, but in the end a fairly routine win. With four players coming back from injury it was great to see the Blues manage to scrape together enough players to have a sub, especially as they were down to 7or 8 at one point. The one sub was a newbie (Stef) who was Arron's last minute call up. Stef hadn't played for so long that he didn't even have his own boots! The pitch didn't really play to Monday's strengths and the few who tried to get away with mouldies found out that there was a lot less grass on it than it looked. Despite the obvious rustiness, it was a solid display all round. The back four kept the Lyle strikers quiet and the midfield put in a lot of effort even if the quality wasn't always there! First half was into the sun and uphill and could have been tricky, but Monday controlled play well and put some cracking crosses in for Morgs to throw himself at, as well as Dan and Si R who also had guilt edge chances. Monday hit the woodwork a couple of times and missed out on a few of goal mouth scrambles. It seemed like it could be one of those days. Lyde's keeper was pulling off some cracking saves. 0-0 half time. Despite the scoreline, Monday went into half time confident. The chances had all been theirs and new that they had the fitness across the pitch to pull it out the bag in the last 20 if not before then. Second half started slowly and Lyde had about the only two decent chances of the first 10 minutes. It was the first time all game that they had pressured the Monday goal really (except set pieces). Their half time team talk had clearly worked. One was a nice half volley from outside the box that came back off the post and the other was the pen. No complaints about that - it was a proper strikers challenge with Dan stepping on the guys heels. Josh pulled out the Martinez mind games and their striker scuffed his shot well wide. The shout of 'he's 6ft 5' during his run up probably didn't help the poor guy! That sparked Monday into life and Andy treated us to a rare goal as he headed in from Jimmy Cooke's drilled corner. The Blues could have had 3 or 4 more as chances from Dan, Morgs, Jamie and a couple from Arron (Si F - not calling your shot a chance) all went missing. Lyde started to tire, as Jimmy cut in from the right and curled a left footed shot just over the keeper. Given that the pitch was horrible, Monday really struggled to get the numbers, there were lots of injury comebacks, and two newbies to the Monday squad, they couldn't have asked for much more. On their home pitch, it could have been 10-0 but that would have been greedy. The day was summed up with a little less than 5 minutes to go, with blisters forming, a long ball was played over the top by their power lifting centre back, and both Si F and Lee were absolutely sprinting their lungs out to get back and help the counter attack. It was great to see and I think Lyde officially gave up after that! The game was played in a really good spirit and the opponents were a really lovely group of lads. Would have been easy to play, even without a ref. Josh was excellent in goal and never switched off. Craig and Lee showed relentless fitness levels and I don't remember a single cross coming in. Si and Andy communicated well at centre back and didn't allow them much room. Jamie, Arron and Jimmer played well(ish) in midfield on difficult conditions and lasted out the game well. Stef helped out in the middle and considering it was his first game of football in forever, played really well and nothing went through him. Dan, Morgs and Si R made real nuisances of themselves and made sure that Mndao played high up the pitch throughout.

MOM - Andy M