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One of the
reasons behind joining the Chelmsford Youth League this year
was to travel away from the regular easterly trips to
Southend. So this Sunday morning the team travelled
westwards along the A127 to Romford and the King George V
playing fields. Some of the management team found it a
little difficult to locate the ground but eventually
everyone arrived safe and sound. |
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Marshalls
Park offered a difficult and new challenge to the Whites.
The game started with Marshalls Park immediately pressing
the Forest boys into many errors. Park were a very physical
and strong team, an attribute that can never be assigned to
the Whites. So Forest Glade took some getting use to this
new challenge. The opening 15 minutes of the game saw Forest
make sloppy passes in dangerous positions and Park had
plenty of possession of the ball. The chances they created
however were not taken. A number of times the Park strikers
breached the Forest defence, which was at this stage looking
static, and flat footed, and had one-on-one chances versus
Elliott Thwaites in the Forest goal. With a mixture of luck
and some desperate defending the Forest Glade goal managed
to hold out. |
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Gradually
Forest brought themselves into the game, the passing became
more accurate and quicker, the defending became a little bit
more assured, and chances began to be created at the
Marshalls Park end. Grant Cumming and Andrey Kotov had been
introduced and Andrey’s pace and Grant’s guile immediately
gave Forest a better creative forward line. Andrey forced
the keeper into a couple of excellent saves and the pressure
allowed the rest of the Forest team to re-group. |
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The first
half ended goal less with Forest perhaps a little lucky to
be going in level but coming more and more into the game. |
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Forest had
the benefit of the wind behind them in the second half and
began gradually to take control of the game. The ball was
being moved around swiftly by Forest, dragging the Park
players out of position. The possession was frustrating the
Park players and the foul count against them grew and grew.
Alex Chapman delivered two great free-kicks from the right,
just inside the Park half, which the Forest forwards just
failed to get a touch to divert the ball into the net.
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In the
second half it was the Forest right that began to cause Park
the most trouble with an admirable performance from Chris
Baker. Chris, whilst giving up at least two feet in height
to his opponent, battled hard to win possession before
delivering some great passes to his team mates. |
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The Forest
midfield were winning the battle and after 20 minutes the
ball was passed to Grant Cumming 10 yards inside his own
half. A sharp turn saw him leave his defender standing and
then he played a superb pass between Park’s left back and
central defender. Andrey Kotov chased hard but the Park
defender had only one thing in mind and that was to block
Andrey’s run. As the ball moved near to the edge of the goal
area the Park goalkeeper came out to retrieve the ball just
as the Park defender was desperately trying to block Andrey
from the ball. The defender could have cleared the ball but
was solely thinking about blocking Andrey, this proved a
mistake as Andrey managed to poke his leg through the
defender making a solid contact with the ball and hitting it
past the keeper into the net. |
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Park
desperately tried to find a way through the Forest defence.
Park gradually committed more and more players forward,
often playing a 3-1-6 formation. The Forest defence
withstood the added pressure, although sometimes they
invited trouble on themselves by being less than decisive in
clearing the ball in the middle of the pitch. The
frustration for the Park players eventually boiled over when
Andrey and a defender both battled for possession. After
both players hit the floor the Marshalls Park player threw a
punch which missed Andrey. For once, Andrey’s composure was
excellent as he just moved away from the player. The referee
had seen the incident and decided to book the Park player.
This saw a number of Park player’s totally lose their
composure and a number of other Park players were cautioned
in the following melee. To their credit Forest kept their
concentration and saw out the rest of the game. |
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This was a
well fought out game, between two evenly matched sides.
Forest’s football however had given them the edge and after
a poor start deserved the victory. Another clean sheet was
pleasing for the management but Grant Cumming stood out as
the player that had been the difference between the two
teams on the day. |
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The
referee should also be commended for an excellent
performance in handling what obviously became a difficult
situation for him. |
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