Men's 2nd Team Vs KIngs Heath Pickwick 2

CoBHC 2s   1 v 1   Kings Heath Pickwick 2s

Goalscorer:  Sean Brookes

This was a bottom of the division clash but it’s much too early to be classed as a six-pointer game.

Unfortunately, the home team only had ten men as injuries from last week’s game and work commitments meant the squad was stretched and one player had to take on  umpire duties.

The game started positively for the home team with good movement off the ball and strong passes around the pitch. The early pressure did lead to a few half chances but all the shots went wide. Jordan in the middle was taking charge of the play and gave the team the edge over the visitors. Munib as the higher midfielder got into some excellent positions to springboard the attacks either with good crosses or driving runs into the heart of the opposition.

As the game wore on, the visitors began to get a foothold into the game and forced a few saves from Jack in goal. The home team’s back three of Edan, Ian and Jahed did excellent work at the back. The team shape was solid in this half and not many gaps appeared for Kings Heath Pickwick. Ben, the third midfielder put in another tough shift. He worked continuously off the ball to be a pass option for his team mates and he also broke down many of the visitors’ early plays. Alongside Jordan, the central midfield was not noticing the loss of one player fortunately. Up front, Anthony had to do a double shift to put pressure on the visitors’ back line as the sole forward.  This he did brilliantly and held up the ball for support from midfield to arrive. The wide players of Parameth and Sean did the most running out of the whole team and this gradually led to fatigue which did impact on the whole team eventually. Parameth and Sean’s impact in the second half faded but they still tried to make an impact with tired legs.

in the second half, Ben appeared to get a second wind. Not only making great passes forward, but also taking a few solo runs from the half way line deep into the opposition’s “D”. On one occasion he picked up a pass from Jordan, turned a defender, drove forward past two more static defenders and once in the “D” got a shot away. Buoyed by this the team all pushed hard together in the final ten minutes to get a goal. Again a few half efforts on goal were saved and lots of short corners were won.

This did lead to the team being stretched and gaps appeared for the visitors to again get a few chances but again Jack cleared with good saves.

With eight minutes left, Jahed passed a long ball up field to Anthony who had his back to the approaching keeper, he controlled the ball and waited for the midfield players to drive forward. With a couple of options, Munib on the right and Sean on the left, Anthony slipped the ball through the keeper’s legs for the ball to land at Sean’s feet as he passed both keeper and Anthony. He drilled the shot in, for CoBHC to take the lead 1-0.

Another forward attack by Jordan was unfortunately blocked by a static defender halting another brilliant pass and move combo by CoBHC in midfield. Soon afterwards it fell to Anthony again, he got the ball with his back to the defence, he turned and got past his marker moving towards goal, unfortunately his pass to Munib lacked power and the play broke down.

With two minutes remaining the visitors got a breakaway goal to equalise as Jack made two saves one after the other but the third shot got by, making the scores even. Both teams tried to get a result with minutes to spare but the game finished with honours even.

 First points on the board for both teams.