Match Report

County Cup 4^th Round, 18^th November 2007

Final Result – FC Brimington 1 (Home) vs. AFC Titans 0 (Away)

Venue – Boundary Sports Ground, Jordanthorpe Parkway, Sheffield

Managers View

The weather was bad today with rain and freezing wind to contend with, the ground was soft but the match was playable.

Team formation today 4-4-2

The starting line for today's match was as follows:  

Match day reporters – No Reporters

Photographer – Cliff Thomas

First Half

The game kicked off at 11am. AFC Titans like FCB had been on a good cup run in their own league Rotherham and District. They too are a young side with plenty of pace in the team. The conditions meant we was not going to see a classy game of football more like a battle. AFC Titans started the better acclimatizing to the conditions better than FCB. They won numerous challenges in the first 20 mins and FCB had to be resolute in their defending. The last 20mins of the first half saw FCB start to get some joy against their back line with Gartlan causing the problems with is running off the ball. The best chances fell to FCB in a first half that produce nothing, one could understand with the conditions. Some fans who braved the weather soon made their way to the clubhouse such was the coldness.

The score remained 0-0 at half time

Second Half

We spoke about the game being tight at half time and one goal would see victory

Both teams started has they left off in the first half . we knew Gartlan had an advantage on the left and so we played with this in mind. We aimed to switch play thus Creating the opportunities for Gartlan to get in behind. 10 mins into the 2^nd half our plan came through having thwarted a titans attack deep in our half we broke quickly collier playing the ball through the middle to Christie who spurned a challenge and played the pass in behind the titans defence from 25yds out Gartlan runs on the blind side was perfection gathering the ball in his stride then composing himself has he approached the keeper from the left the titans keeper showed Gartlan enough space across him that he duly buried the shot in the bottom right corner. 1-0 FCB. We had a similar chance in the first half again Christie the provider but that time Gartlan touch let him down. We gained confidence from the goal and a great bit of skill by Christie who back heeled a pass into the run of Gartlan who struck the shot with power from 20yds it beat the keeper but hit the crossbar and bounced on the line there was no one there to follow up. Titans tried their best to get back on terms and their best chance came when a free-kick from 22yds out looked destined for the top corner but an acrobatic save from Newton tipped it over just in time. Both teams showed a lot of courage out there today but that one moment of brilliance by Gartlan gave us the victory.

Full time  1-0  fcb

Summary

The 11 players showed a togetherness today which was the match winner every one who played did something special Sean Gardner first game in weeks saw a good performance and only one error! James Towers played the holding role brilliantly Lawrence Wragg battled well as he could not use those silky skills in the conditions, Ben Thomas and Dave Simpson display in the center of defence was tremendous except for Daves moments of Maradona! Chris Kealey runs on the left wing kept the wing back at bay. Collier passing was to be admired, Leversidge pace recovered situations excellently, Newtons keeping back to its best except the kicking! Gartlan starting to look like the Gartlan of old when I first saw him play in the FA youth cup against moor green from Birmingham. The ever present mr Christie who I failed to mention went into midfield to help protect the lead and gathered the ball at our 18yd box and ran the length of the field beating 3 players and shooting wide if only he had passed to Wragg who tracked his run to perfection and un-marked we may have won 2-0 but we don't want to do that! Tremendous player.

Lets move on next week

Cliff Thomas