Earley Gunners gained some degree of revenge after an early season defeat against Earley HG res with a 2-1 win. The pitch conditions made it difficult for both sides to play good football particularly on the wings which were extremely boggy but Gunners settled the better of the teams and dominated the first half against a strong looking Earley HG side.
Dave Owen opened the scoring after a mazy run took him past a few players and he finished with a well struck left foot shot from outside the box and then top scorer Bill Maslin who was working hard up front made it 2-0 before half time after some he chased a lost cause and finished from close range.
The whole team played very well in the first half and out fought the opposition in all areas of the field and limited them to a couple of chances and whilst some of the defensive play was not pretty, it was effective. In attack Gunners looked better when they were playing first time passes and carved open the opposition on several occasions.
The half time score was 2-0 to Gunners.
The second half was even with the opposition changing their formation to cope with the Gunners onslaught. They were more effective in the second half and were rewarded when they clawed back a goal a close range header.
Gunners created several good chances but failed to score the extra goal to give them a cushion. In the last few minutes, Julian Willis made a good save from a long range effort which he tipped over the bar to keep Gunners lead.
In the last few minutes an injury to Matt Rees after all the subs had been used saw the team reduced to 10 men for the last five minutes. Despite virtually constant pressure for the last couple of minutes, Gunners held out to earn the win.
This was a very good team performance and the whole team battled very well to earn the win against a stronger Earley HG side than we would normally face. (as their first team game looks like it was cancelled and they had about 10 subs on the line)
It appeared some of the "reserve" players who were dropped had great fun in abusing their first teamers who got a worse result against Gunners than their reserve side.
Paul Ali was Gunners "Man of the Match" for an impressive defensive performance, closely followed by Julian Willis.
Match Facts
MOM : Pa Ali
Goals : B Maslin (1), D Owen (1)
Team
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