Earley Gunners vs Fourth Shift 5 - 0

Match Report

Earley Gunners cruised to a comfortable victory over Fourth Shift Res.

Gunners started the game strongly and had most of the possession in the first half.

Kevin Rapley opened the scoring and then Dave Owen added a second.

Nick Burrows scored the third with a well taken shot from outside the box and Paul Clark added a fourth with a deflected shot. The Gunners defence limited the opposition to one shot which was well saved by stand in keeper Fraser McNaughton.

Unfortunately, Jon Weller who had looked good early on was injured after being tackled and suffered a recurrence of a knee injury.

Despite having the better of the windy conditions in the second half, Gunners failed to continue the form of the first half and were limited to a goal from Neil Rumbold after some good work on right from Dave Owen.

Gunners had several opportunities to add to the lead but failed to find the target, most notably from top marksman Dave Owen! Fourth Shift had a couple of breaks in the second half and Paul Ali was fortunate to escape a yellow card when he fouled the opposing forward when he made a break for the goal.

Fraser McNaughton was called into action once or twice in the second half but there were few serious attempts at goal.

The final score was a 5-0 Gunners win.

Match Facts

Goals : D Owen (1), K Rapley (1), P Clark (1), N Burrows (1), N Rumbold (1)

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Earley Gunners vs Hays Theale 9 - 0

Match Report

Earley Gunners cruised to an easy win in the return fixture against Hays Theale.

Nick Burrows gave Gunners a good start when he finished after the second attempt from a right wing cross. He then made it two goals with a great finish from just inside the box.

Then Fraser McNaughton scored his first ever goal for the club when he received the ball 40 yards out and sent a long cross/shot (delete as appropriate) which flew into the top left hand corner of the goal.

The half time score was 3 - 0 to Gunners who had the better of the windy conditions. In the second half having to play partly against the wind Gunners finally started to play some quick one touch football and this paid dividends with a hatful of goals.

Rob Warwick added the fourth goal for Gunners and then Darren Fry rifled home a shot to make it five. Phil Byrne then made an appearance and scored with his first touch of the game with a lovely chip over the Hays keeper.

Paul Ali then added his name to the score sheet when he flicked a cross over the keeper and Sean Kearns made it eight when he turned in a corner from Dave Owen.

Paul Ali scored the ninth when he hit the ball home from close range after some good work from Rob Warwick. Kevin Rapley came close to scoring but put one shot over the bar from six yards out and then had another shot blocked by Nick Burrows and his final decent chance was cleared of the line by a defender.

The final result was an easy 9 - 0 win.

Match Facts

Goals : Pa Ali (2), N Burrows (2), D Fry (1), F McNaughton (1), P Byrne (1), S Kearns (1)

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Ruscombe Res vs Earley Gunners 0 - 2

Match Report

Earley Gunners made further progress in the league and earned some degree of revenge over Ruscombe Res with a 2 - 0 win.. A tight first half in windy conditions made it difficult to get the ball out of our own half and Ruscombe Res had some early pressure by forcing a string of corners.

Gunners created few chances and this led to a 0 - 0 half time score although Paul Clark missed a good opportunity to take the lead when he shot wide from close range and Fraser made a good foray into the opponents penalty box but failed to get a shot in.

The second half saw Gunners have more of the possession and more favourable weather conditions and most of the play took place in the Ruscombe half.

Gunners took the lead through Kevin Rapley as he raced onto a loose ball and fired home and then Gunners added a second through Dave Owen who continued his goal scoring run. Gunners were then handed an advantage when a Ruscombe player was sent off for arguing with the referee.

Ruscombe had very few opportunities in the second half and a tigerish defence kept the play away from the Gunners goal with some good tackling and quick closing down of opponents.
Gunners had a couple of opportunities to extend the lead through Paul Ali and Nick Burrows who had a glorious opportunity to score when the ball was chipped over the defence to him from the right and he made a diagonal run towards the goal, he nearly stumbled when faced with a one on one with thekeeper and then sent his shot wide. (Kev looked a little upset then)

Ruscombe created very little and the only other moment of the game was Frasers fantastic volleyed clearance when he was under no pressure at all. The final score was a 2—0 win to Gunners.

Match Facts

Goals: K Rapley (1), D Owen (1)

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Earley Gunners vs Fourth Shift 4 - 3

Match Report

Earley Gunners beat Fourth Shift Res to earn a place in the semi-finals of the Eddie Titchener Cup.Gunners made the brighter of the start in the first few minutes and had a couple of chances to take the lead most notably through Paul Ali before Kevin Rapley scored the first.

Fourth Shift then had the better of possession and had a couple of chances to score and Gunners were only saved through the efforts of keeper Julian Willis. Fourth Shift Res scored through a dubious looking penalty but Gunners took the lead again through Dave Owen after he finished of a move involving several players.

Fourth Shift then levelled the score again when they played a ball over their left which was struck home sweetly from inside the box.

The half time score was 2-2. The second half saw a number of changes with Nick Burrows and Nick Robey introduced into midfield. Unfortunately the football played was no better than in the first half and Gunners continued to struggle.

Gunners managed to take the lead when Dave Owen fired home a penalty after Ian Thornhill was brought down in the box unfortunately Ian could no longer continue the match. Gunners then held on until the last ten minutes when Kevin Rapley who fired home neatly from close range to give Gunners some breathing space.

But the game was not over and Fourth Shift managed a late goal when the opposing forward was not closed down at the edge of the box and his shot hit the post and this made the score 4-3.

Match Facts

Goals : K Rapley (2), D Owen (2)

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