Match Reports
21/02/09
Rover Oxford 1-3 Men's 2nd XI
It was a nice sunny day at 09:30 and looked like it was going to be another walk in the park for a Brighton side that has only dropped 4 points all season.............that was until Dan Hore turned up to the meet looking like he'd just slept in the gutter and smelling like he had just come from The Victory! Although Deler-Merricks has now been permanently dropped to the 1's he still managed to disrupt our pre-match preparation by causing the Ginger Ninja to be half hour late.
The spirits in the minibus were high, and not just from Dan Hore's breath. Not even a detour through Uxbridge to avoid traffic on the M25 could dampen the buzz in the team. That said, by the time we arrived in Oxford everyone was looking rather deflated. I blame it on the Ford Focus that insisted on travelling at 60mph in the outside lane all the way along the M40 and although Alan 'smasher' Mcguiness managed to get past the Ford (legally of course) it was only a matter of time before we hit a hill and had to concede defeat and let them past again.
Brighton took control of the game straight from the whistle with some fantastic structured play, quick decision making and ball speed and for the first 20 minutes it looked like Rover weren't going to get out of their half. Brighton missed several early chances with the best falling to the young Alex Coyle at the far post who's deflection went inches wide. Brighton were rewarded for their persistence with a rather scrappy goal courtesy of the Rover defence after a hopeful cross from the left somehow went through 2 defenders, then the goalie and ended up on Jamie Hendricks stick 1 yard from goal. I'm sure I saw a glimmer of a smile as Jamie made sure it went over the line.
After this well deserved goal Brighton continued to pressure Rover and with the occasional counter attack threatening to level up the score it was still in the balance. A one-on-one chance that Psycho did just enough to make the attacker shoot wide was Rovers best chance in the first half.
Being the old man in the team my memory is not as it was and I think Oli Postlethwaite Brighton scored a second before half time but this might be as accurate as a News of the World exclusive!
Rover had a chance to equalise after the break when another one-on-one saw Psycho do enough to stall the attack at the edge of the D allowing the almost retired Luke Williams to dive at full stretch to deny Rover the equaliser. The look on the attackers face was one of disbelief. ......."where the hell did that old git come from?"
Rover got a goal back through a short corner but Oli Postlethwaite was soon to restore the 2 goal advantage after a lovely individual effort ghosting in on the base line from the left and squeezing it past the keeper after the Rover defence stopped "assuming" the ball went out of play. Oli insists that it didn't............I believe him and so did the umpires. "Play to the whistle" .
Brighton had too many short corners to mention and only 1 resulted in the ball going over the line. Unfortunately for Alan Smasher Mcguiness his flick/slap/hit which missed the backboard was ruled out by the umpires. Knowing Alan he'll probably still credit himself with a goal.
Brighton are definitely considering moving their home games to the Brookes Sport Centre as the post match views are definitely worth the 4 hour round trip.
So it's 3 more points in the bag and unlike the minibus on the return home it looks like Brighton will have enough fuel to get them were they need to go. "Check your fuel level".
Rover were a well structured side and in my opinion deserve to be higher than their current position in the league.
Written by: Luke Williams