LX v Royal Navy over 55's.

26th September 2010

The navy had the choice of ends and the pushback. In good british style they pushed the ball into the LX  end  and that was the last time for the next 15 minutes LX got the ball as far forward as the halfway line. Slowly LX recovered, heartened that they had kept the Navy from scoring despite their all round dominance.  By the end of the half things had evened out to the point that LX nearly scored. Keith Hunt had taken up a great position on the keepers left hand post, only to hit the post following a delightful pass from Sudesh. What a steal that would have been.

At half time Geoff Lucas decided it would be silly to continue to play and further aggravate his sore tendon.  It was decided not to disturb the defence who had done such a great job in the first half, so Gordon Small moved to inside right and Alan Jackson came on at centre forward.

From the start of the 2nd half LX made a tactical change to stretch play by keeping forwards a lot further forward. The advantage of doing this was to give the hard hitting full backs, Zahid Arain and David Read, plus centre half Richard Edgar room to find the forwards well into the Navy half. This period of play was reasonably evenly balanced with attacking moves requiring keeper action.

With 5 minutes to go three LX players combined to score the only goal of the game.  Sudesh Nayar started the move from just inside the LX half. He dribbled the ball forward and lifted it shin height through the narrowest of gaps, to Gordon Small. The latter had a one on one opportunity with the keeper but unselfishly passed the ball left to Austyn Leaverland who scored .

The goal is a definite contender for the goal of the LX season.

The outstanding feature of the match was LX's defensive play. King Pin at centre half was Richard Edgar who knitted together the players around him.  Both wing halves, Adrian Money  and Colin Pearce  did really well to stand the pressure of the first half. Adrian in particular made an important last ditch tackle.

Colin took no prisoners and snuffed out the naval attacks.  Zahid Arains hitting power at fullback is awesome and enables him to find gaps that others are not able. David Read played his steady game once the shock of the first fee minutes  had worn off. Keeper Colin Kimber kept LX in the match on several occasions and his presence gave confidence to the defence.

LX forwards Keith Hunt and Geoff Lucas played a similar game. Straight forward and very effective.  On the day Gordon Small was the pick of the forwards for attacking play and Sudesh Nayer for control of the ball under pressure, rarely giving it away. Last of the forwards was Austyn Leaverland who played outside left which is not his preferred position. Having said that his endeavours gave LX the win.

All in all, a great team performance.

Special thanks to Tom Darlington for umpiring.

Match Manager: Alan Jackson.