Men's 1st Team Vs Kings Heath Pickwick 1

CoB Men’s 1sts     2    v   0   Kings Heath Pickwick 1sts

Goalscorers:  Jeevan Chagger (55mins), Noor Zaman (70mins)

This proved to be a hard-fought win against resilient opponents. From the off, other teams showed their intent, both probing for openings, both defending well. Kings Heath maybe created the better of the early chances but without really troubling the home keeper. CoB defence of David, Mat, Akib together with Sohail and Alex held firm and encouraged the midfield and forwards to settle into their stride and create many of their own chances but were generally well held by the visiting defence but with their keeper kept quite busy.

Both teams kept at it but mainly cancelling each out. At half time it was honours even at 0-0

CoB made an energetic start to the second half creating quite a bit of pressure and chances on goal, which at this stage, were not finished off. Kings Heath too were still well in the game with positive attacks of their own. Then, midway through then half, CoB finally got the breakthrough they had been threatening. From a short corner that was not cleared, Jeevan produced a great drag flick effort that flew into the net. Then shortly afterwards, Abrar went close with another great effort. Then David went on a surging run from defence, through midfield, into the D but his attempt on goal was cleared for a short corner. Other surging runs by individuals lead to wasted efforts when a little more control and teamwork might well have achieved better results. Kings Heath were still striving for the equaliser but being well kept at bay and Neal saving the day on a couple of occasions. The game became a little feisty at times, and both teams suffered green cards to settle things down.  As the game was nearing its final stages CoB clinched the result when the impressive David again cleared the ball down the right. The ball reached Kyle who continued forward to cross the ball into the D to reach Noor who cleverly beat the advancing keeper and slipped the ball into net.

In the end a good win. A good team performance on the whole. The visitors provided stern opposition in what turned out to be a tough game ‘fought’ by two strong-tackling teams.

The result leaves the top of the league evenly poised with three teams now on 28 points. Next week CoB face a tough test, away, against top of the table, West Bromwich.