Enate United vs Chalk Scratchings

Match Summary: (Chalk Scratchings)

Another very strong performance from the mighty Scratchings yesterday, in the coldest game of the year so far. We were composed and organized in every position and dominated Enate from the start. No subs but we kept up the tempo and the positive teamwork right until the end… even with 5 mins to go and way ahead, we never let the guard down.

Our defence was consistent and communicative at mopping up threats very well. We had Dylan and Nuts as fullbacks and the infallible Douse and Vinny as CBs.  Cima and Shaw pressing and hounding all game and distributing well in the middle, and wingers Miles and Rob linking up excellently with the lightning pair of Cary and Miguel up front… forming this basically unstoppable attacking four that Enate just couldn’t deal with. Luis did his best to survive the freezing wind while guarding the goal and trying to remember his warmer childhood in Ecuador.

Too difficult to remember the full order of things, but the first half was just riddled with goal scoring opportunities… crosses, corners, headers, shots. The first goal came after a few minutes, with a quick attack through their team leading to a shot from Miles and a messy defensive scramble and the ball just rolling over the line. After that came a series of lethal crosses from Miles on the right all landing on a pin in front of Cary who seems to keep hitting them just left of the post. Finally, Cary got his chance off a corner from the left…  connecting sweetly with a volley to get on the score sheet. Third goal was I think Miguels but I don’t remember it exactly. I’m sure it was good!

10 mins before half time, Nuts let out a yelp as a wayward elbow caught him square in the nose and he starting bleeding all over his sparkling all-white kit. We regrouped and came back out as 11 with a woozy Nuts looking a bit pale from the litre of blood that he lost. Gaffers will be discussing adding a pouch of blood to the medi bag for that quick pitch-side transfusion in the future.

We conceded a soft goal from the restart as a bouncing ball led to some miscommunication between Luis and the people around him. But we came straight back at them and just keep attacking and dominating. If we didn’t score we were getting corners so they struggled to keep up. They started losing every ball in the air in the middle and stopped committing to their tackles and we kept finding gaps.  Cary got pushed over in the box when he was cutting in from the left at speed. Penalty… Miles goes middle and scores. 4-1.

We starting becoming particularly dangerous on the counter-attack to their probing for a comeback… with our speed and stamina giving us the edge. The formula worked consistently well – the organized fortress of defence + holding Ben Shaw cleaning up and passing it to Cima, Cima breaks forward and distribute to wingers, wingers 1-2 up the pitch with forwards and then deliver a deep ball to the back post or through ball to Miguel or Cary. Basically they just couldn’t tackle us and we could have scored loads more. Miguel scored a decent individual goal dancing through defence and poking it bottom left. Another one from Cary… another one from Miles… cant remember exactly.

So final score 7-1 one… great effort from all.

MoM goes to Miles for his hatrick and incredibly dangerous crosses corners and free kicks all game long.

That’s 17 goals in last 3 games but against some of the weaker teams… good to get our mojo back. We now have a crack at some of the harder teams. Surreal + Gyro + Phillipines… lets take the confidence forward and try to get firmly up the table where we belong.

 — Tomas Cima, Chalk Scratchings