FC Samba Online

FC Samba went into their third league game of the season against familiar opposition in the form of Gedling Southbank ‘A’. This was the fourth successive season the teams had been in the same division and Samba boasted a 100% record going into the match with 6 wins out of 6. The only change to the side victorious at Ashland was that Jones came in on the left of the midfield for the injured Francis, who was deemed fit enough only for a place on the bench.

Samba started the game with purpose and soon had Southbank on the back foot. Kicking up the slope Samba were allowed to play and forced Southbank into conceding a number of early corners. The set-pieces were of mixed success, with a half-chance falling to Wilkinson, who saw his shot go over the top after sneaking in late to the penalty box.

Samba’s early dominance told when they were awarded a penalty after 10 minutes. The ball was played into G.Taylor’s feet with his back to goal, and unwisely the defender attempted the tackle from behind. In actual fact the defender may have got something on the ball, so in that regards it could be considered harsh, but the referee had no doubts in pointing to the spot. G.Taylor took the penalty himself and whilst by his own admission it was not the sweetest struck spot-kick, the result was the same as the previous week and Samba had an early and well-deserved lead.

In the opening twenty-five minutes Samba played as well as they had for a long time and created a number of good chances. G.Taylor, clearly fancying his chances of a bag full, was denied by the keeper when his snapshot from the edge of the box was turned round the post by the keeper. Jones was also denied his first Samba goal, when the keeper dived to his left to keep out a header after Gamba had rescued a deep cross, with a good header of his own across the 6yd box. At the other end Samba were occasionally troubled by the long ball over the top of the defence , that lead to the away side earning a few corners. One of the corners saw Southbank nearly equalise when a powerful header was well saved on the line by Nicholls, before Bassett completed the job by booting the ball to safety.

Any nerves from nearly conceding were dispelled when Samba doubled their lead and it came from a great cross from right full back Hawkins, who picked out G.Taylor climbing much higher than any defender to head in his 4th goal of the campaign.

For the last 20mins of the first half, Samba were a little Jekyll and Hyde, in that at times they played good football, but were also guilty of over-playing in the wrong areas and there was just a touch of complacency in their performance at times. Towards the end of the half Misouda replaced Gamba on the right side of midfield, who had taken a knock, and the game drifted towards half-time with the score 2-0 to the Sandboys.

Half Time: FC Samba 2 v 0 Gedling Southbank A

At half-time the team talk centred around staying composed, stamping out complacency and ensuring a comfortable three points. Within the first fifteen minutes of the second half Samba put their foot on the pedal and ensured that it was indeed a comfortable three points. There were three goals in quick succession which ended the game as a contest and maintained Samba’s perfect record against Southbank.

First G.Taylor completed a well deserved hatrick when he headed home a perfect cross from Gibbons from the by-line, after a tricky dribble from the Samba midfielder. Within minutes Gibbons was on the score sheet himself, needing no second invitation to strike a ball that sat up perfectly from 20yds and it nestled in the back of the net, for his 3rd goal of the season. At this point Samba were rampant and G.Taylor was played in through the right hand side channel, aftre good football from first Gibbons, and then Misouda. It looked a difficult chance but G.Taylor’s confidence was sky high and he took it first time with the outside of his foot to steer the ball into the bottom left hand corner from 20yds.

At 5-0 up and with just under half an hour to go, it felt like the end result could be a real battering. With the job well done Gibbons was replaced by Street and Samba went to 4-4-2. However, as often happens in this situation, Samba relaxed too much and allowed Southbank to gain some possession which saw the game played in Samba’s half for decent spells in the remainder of the match. Samba still created chances, with G.Taylor usually in the thick of things. First he header over from a cross from Bassett and then saw a shot cleared off the line, when perhaps he could have squared for Street, though you couldn’t blame him for shooting in that position.

Samba did get a sixth, and it was a great move which saw the ball switch from left to right, to Jones who had changed sides following Francis’ introduction. The ball came across Jones who kept it down with good technique to smash home in the right hand corner. Since the game had long been made safe, Samba’s priority, particularly amongst their back five was to keep a clean sheet, something that was a rarity both last season and at the start of this season. The problem for Samba was that for the last 20mins they were cruising and it was then difficult to get momentum back into their play. Whilst Southbank were not opening Samba up on a regular basis, they were certainly more of threat and the inevitable came when Southbank got a goal after Samba failed to clear a cross into the box. It took the shine of the result a little, but at the end of the day you have to be satisfied with a 6-1 victory, which saw Samba in a reasonable 5th place at this early stage of the season.