Earley Gunners regained the lead at the top of the table with a convincing win over Ruscombe Res.
There was an early scare when a break down in communication saw Peter Ali’s header go past the oncoming keeper (Fraser) who then took out his own player leaving him on the ground. Thankfully the ball rolled wide of the goal.
The first half was still tight but Gunners took the lead after a long goal kick was flicked on by Kevin Rapley to Darren Fry who scored from close range. Gunners then made it two when another goal kick was allowed to go through to thekeeper and Kevin Rapley managed to get there ahead of him and nod it in.
At half time the score was 2 - 0 to Gunners and a good defensive performance in the first half had been required to keep Ruscombe at bay. The second half saw Gunners under some more pressure and Ruscombe even hit the post with a long range effort.
Then with about 20-25 minutes left things started to go right for Gunners and they went on a goal blitz. Darren Fry was influential on a couple of the goals crossing for Dave Owen to head home, Kevin Rapley added another goal and then Nick Burrows scored a goal from close range.
Phil Abbot who had an outstanding game at left back was substituted due to injury with 10 minutes to go and this resulted in a quick positional change and makeshift left winger Paul Ali setup a couple of goals allowing Neil Rumbold to score and then laying the ball of to Dave Owen to tap the ball in from close range.
The final score was a convincing 7 - 0 win and finally we saw some of the old Gunners style which seems to have been lacking a lot this season.
Match Facts
MOM : P Clark
Goals : K Rapley (2), D Owen (2), D Fry (1), N Burrows (1), N Rumbold (1)
Team
