Team:

• Liam Cooper
• Jack Morris
• Robbie O’Donnell
• Tom Marshall
• Craig Dale
• Max Pashely
• Will Gill
• Dylan Farrow
• Macaulay Kilpatrick
• Ryan Shield
• Connor Bartle
• Richard Meagan
• Chris Cockbill

Match Report:

Last week I said our players were slow out of the gate; it took 26 minutes for us to really get going. Not so today, Dylan opened the scoring within the first minute. Pouncing on a loose ball, he looked up, saw the keeper out of position and coolly lobbed the ball into the unguarded net. Just the start we needed in our quest to get the three points we needed from the game in order to continue our climb up the league table.

After a few unimpressive performances earlier in the season where we lost our shape and composure far too often, the team have started to show that they can compete in Division 2. In all areas of the pitch the signs have been encouraging and Dylan’s first goal certainly gave the boys confidence as they took the game to Arnold. With 15 minutes on the clock the team was rewarded again for its efforts; Ryan S performed an excellent bicycle kick to set up Dylan for goal number 2 (struck with his left foot if I am not mistaken). If this game had been televised then Ryan would certainly be on next weeks Soccer-AM as part of their “Showboating” feature.

Defensively the team have become difficult for the opposition to breakdown, however on 25 minutes Arnold did manage to reduce the deficit with a lobbed goal that gave Liam no chance. How would the boys respond to this; Arnold are a good team and now were back in the game.

Well the answer was, “ they would respond fantastically”; Connor picked up the ball out on the left, seemed to loose it, kept going, won it back and then set up Dylan to complete his hatrick. Excellent work by the young left footed player.

Half-Time: Cotgrave 3 Arnold 1

With George and Ryan B missing today we were a little short of attacking options; the situation was made worse with Macaulay being under the weather today and as such not having as much energy as he would have had normally. That said he still managed to give the crowd flashes of his considerable talents with the ball.

The first 14 minutes of the half required the Colts to dig in and contain Arnold while they again tried to get back into the game. Craig has always been a key player for the team and over the past 4 weeks he has shown everyone why with some fantastic performances at centre half; today was certainly proving to be another excellent day at the office for Craig.

Our captain, Max, is a player who gives 100% a lot of the time; that is when he is not giving 200% which is most of the time. He was nearly replaced at halftime after picking up an injury but instead went on to put in a rousing second half performance that was proving to be a problem for Arnold. As a comedy aside, Max also became a momentary problem for Liam as they both struggled to keep out the ball in a goal mouth scramble. With great confidence our goalkeeper pushed his captain aside before smothering the danger; spot on Liam well done!

On 15 minutes, Arnold did manage to get another goal back – 3 -2; game on. At this point we made a tactical substitution and moved to 5 in midfield; Dylan shouted across “am I upfront on my own?”. The answer was yes, for now you are. What was the impact? Dylan scored two more to make the score 5 -2. The first goal was excellently set-up by the fit again Chris and the second was an absolute belter; picking the ball up on the right he advanced forward and despatched an unstoppable shot across the keeper and into the roof of the net.

Fulltime: Cotgrave 5 Arnold 2

Summary:

Tom, Jack, Richard, Robbie and Will, although not mentioned individually in the report all deserve a mention for their efforts today. It is not possible to write narrative to describe everything that every player has done during a match but it goes without saying that our recent successes have been a team effort – everyone can see that.

Dylan has now scored 20 goals this season which matches his total for the whole of last season. I am only glad that his haircut has not sapped his strength; always a worry when someone changes something in a good run of form.

Another pleasing statistic is that we have now only conceded 5 goals in the last 4 matches; the 4 matches before that saw us concede 17 goals. That is a fantastic improvement and a credit to the whole team.

We learnt this week that Gedling Town have pulled out of the league; the result being that the 3 points we won from them will now be taken off our total. If these points had not been removed we would be 5th in the table.

A big thank you to John and Steve for assisting today’s very good referee by running the line. Thanks also to Ian B and those that helped take down the nets and the ropes at the end of the game. Thanks to Fiona for the coffee and the Under 9’s for providing the bacon cobs (good luck with your fundraising).

Training as usual is on Friday between 7pm and 8pm (Dayncourt). Next weeks game is on Saturday in the 3rd round of the Notts FA Shield.

Well done boys, lets keep the run going.

Alan and Mark.