Men's 2nd Team Vs Sutton Coldfield 8

Sutton Coldfield 8ths    2 v 1    COBHC 2s

Goal scorer: Kamran Umar

After last week’s first win of the season, City of Birmingham 2s were in good spirits, before today’s game at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School. Whilst waiting for the Astro pitch to become available, the team discussed in detail last week’s positives and how to improve for this game. Edan the Captain told the big squad the positions and rotation of substitutes before the teams warm ups began.

Once the game finally got underway the visitors started strongly and bossed the game for ten minutes. Possession was lost too easily but the team worked hard to win back possession. Early chances fell to the visitors with this pressure and Stan had a couple of good early chances but they went wide.

Eventually the home team settled into the game and started to stretch the Cob midfield and back line. A few telling long balls found wide players who attacked down the flanks. Half way through the half the game become more even and both teams had good chances. Jack in goal was soon called to make a couple of saves. The visitors in return won a lot of penalty corners, but none tested the keeper.

After twenty-five minutes a cross from the right found a Sutton striker at the top right of the “D”. He turned and the defence failed to close him down and he struck a well hit shot into the roof of the net giving Jack no chance. The visitors remained calm and didn’t try to force an equaliser too soon. But around half time the Sutton team got a two-goal lead when a quick break away found an unmarked attacker in space who slotted away his shot at the back post. As the second half wore on, the visitors started to string together great combination passes and pressed high. This put a lot of pressure on the home team’s defence. The CoB team again won lots of penalty corners but again the chances went wide. The Sutton team decided to defend the two-goal lead and sat deep to defend the three points. This tactic proved problematic as the visitors pushed high and got clear chances in dangerous areas. Finally, a shot rebounding found Kamran free to slot home. 2-1. With momentum on the visitors’ side and looking for the equaliser, the Sutton defence was desperately waiting for the final whistle. A few more chances did come to the visitors in the final minutes but no clear shots on goal. A frustrating loss for the visitors as better early accurate passing would have given the team more possession and built confidence. Marking by the defence needs more development with better tracking of players as this was pivotal in key periods of the game. The two positives of this game were the young new players linking in the squad so brilliantly and the combination of the quick short passing in small triangle over the whole pitch. Its early in the season but these two attributes show lots of promise for the season.