Whilst, Alan went for a romantic weekend in Rome, a late wedding anniversary celebration with Rowena, the rest of us went to Clifton !

Potentially a tricky away cup tie against Clifton Athletic.

The weather offered a great day for football as it was dry with no wind and though missing 3 players Cotgrave turned up with a strong looking squad, welcoming Connor Bartle into the squad for his first game.

Early on Cotgrave quickly opened up a number of chances and after 5 minutes Chris opened his account with some assistance from a Clifton defender!

It was not all going to be one way however and though Jack was not having too much to do in goal, he had to be on his toes.  After 14 minutes he pulled off an excellent save as the ball looked destined for the Cotgrave net.  Clifton were a sprightly side and with stout determination always looked dangerous competing well in defence and midfield.

A strong first half performance from Will was rewarded with him getting a second goal for Cotgrave but virtually immediately Clifton pulled one back.  Chris then scored his second just before half time.

HALF TIME:      3  - 1

The second half was very similar to the first, though Cotgrave did begin to get more on top as the game progressed.  Clifton kept battling and not only did they get the reward of a second goal but they hit the Cotgrave woodwork twice. 

In the second half, further goals were added by Macauley and Chris (finishing his hat trick) and Brin scored his first goal for the club.

Brin has been substitute for substantial periods during recent matches but today was given over 45 minutes on the pitch and his confidence grew as he settled.  This was best demonstrated when after being nicely played in by Dylan he did not panic in front of goal, took a nice touch, looked up and calmly chipped the ball over Clifton’s excellent goal keeper for his first goal for the club.  (Touch of Michael Owen about his finish!).

Surely the look of excitement, amazement and pleasure on Brin’s face is what football coaching is all about.  Well done Brin !

In conclusion this was not Cotgrave’s most fluent performance but we did get the job done. We are back to a division 2 league encounter on Wednesday night at the Welfare and it is important the lads really apply themselves because we need a higher level of performance in order to take the points needed to get us up the table.

Thanks to Spuggy and John for running the line.  Thanks to Alison for the match administration and thanks to all the lads who respectfully accepted 10 or 15 minutes on the substitutes bench as we rotated the squad to give everyone a reasonable amount of pitch time.