The game against Christchurch saw Poppies extend their 100% winning League record to five straight, in a game we dominated but again couldn’t quite put in all the finishing touches.
In a way we were fortunate to get the game on following the atrocious wet weather- and indeed had the game been scheduled to kick off an hour later than it did- we might have had another blank day following a heavy downpour just prior to half time.
Kicking towards the Winton End in the first period, we won our first corner on 3 minutes, which Ollie couldn’t quite get his head to and just a couple of minutes later we let our visitors off the hook from another corner and with barely ten minutes gone on the clock Leo had a header that was just wide of the target.
Jack was caught offside having just turned his marker, a story that was to become familiar throughout the game with Poppies getting caught on several occasions, and was shaping to shoot. Jack was unlucky in our next attack when he hit the side netting from around eight yards out.
Christchurch’s first attack came on 18, when they themselves beat our offside trap but the resulting shot didn’t trouble Jason.
A Langrish cross on 22 could almost have opened the scoring but evaded everyone and was just another bit of misfortune, surely the game couldn’t be settled on just one goal?
This looked even more to be the likely outcome when a superb header from Leo was stopped on the line by former Bournemouth player Colin Dand- and a further effort from Ollie looped over the bar. Another fine timely challenge robbed Gazza right in front of goal. The visiting defence looked to be leading a charmed life and under almost constant pressure- surely something had to give soon.
With just five minutes left in the opening period a Gazza shot from around 35 yards brought out a brilliant finger tip save from Taylor (making his debut in the ‘Church goal), and with barely a minute left Leo had another cracking header that flashed over the bar.
The heavy rain stopped just after the resumption and had left the surface somewhat slick in places.
Just five minutes into the half following a foul on Coolie by Dan Crutchley- that saw the first yellow card of the evening, we again couldn’t capitalise on some slack defending, and just after the hour mark Leo had the ball in the net much to the joy of a handful of spectators who hadn’t seen the Assistant’s flag raised for an infringement on the keeper.
Even Lamin was getting forward during this spell of pressure and after his good approach work, Jack- growing in confidence with each attack, saw his effort sweep past the near post.
It was the young striker’s work in the 68th minute that brought about the decisive moment. He made a great penetrating 30 yard run and turn; beating several players, his unselfish ball across the face of goal was converted with aplomb by Leo.
We could have extended our lead when a Lee Hodder challenge on Jack saw the resulting free kick caught on, and almost carried over the line by the ‘keeper. With the game petering out our last meaningful attack came with eleven minutes left when a fine cross in from the stand side by Tim saw a Lamin header drop on to the roof of the net, having caught the keeper off balance.
The only downside in the game was Coolie’s unfortunate dismissal with a quarter of an hour remaining, and Jack was also cautioned although in his defence he had been given a bit of a rough ride in the minutes immediately building up to it.
That aside, we seemed to have more desire to win and we could have won by a bigger margin (it should have been 3-0 at half time), and the defence largely being untroubled in the game. Although our guests huffed and puffed in the second period they only had two shots on goal in the game. The man of the match award was again difficult to call, however Gary Langrish picks up his second award although Jack can consider himself unlucky not to get it for a second game in a row.