Carlton Town Res — Sat 5 Feb 2011

Match report

Half time: 1 – 3

Samba arrived at Eagle Valley for their fifth consecutive match as firm underdogs for this cup tie, but they still fancied chances of causing a shock upset after playing some decent stuff in recent weeks. With Gibbons shooting himself in the foot by promising everyone a quarter-final match this season, he gave the management team a difficult task of leaving a couple of players out. Bassett was asked to drop down to the Reserves to beef up their leaky defence whilst, C.Taylor was a tad unlucky to lose his starting place to enable the Gibbons' pledge to happen. Dollochin reverted back to a less lung busting role at centre half with Gamba returning at right wing back following a good display for the ressies. Boughton returned from Amsterdam to fill the bench whilst Smith answered the manager's plea to go between the sticks with regular keeper Nicholls away on holiday. Samba started brightly and the opening minutes were played at a high tempo, but with barely 5 minutes on the clock the home side found themselves a goal down. A clever jink in the box by an opposition forward resulted in him and Dollochin tangling legs. Despite staying on his feet, the ref pointed to the spot and the kick was confidently despatched, 0-1. Undeterred, Samba kicked off and again pushed forward at every opportunity and hassled the Carlton defence and midfielders all over the park. Both sides were playing some neat, controlled and fast football and the game seemed to be screaming out that there would be a ton of goals in the match. There were, but unfortunately they weren't spread out as evenly as the game actually was. Carlton scored twice more in the first half which was harsh on the Sandboys who certainly didn't deserve to be 3-0 down. The second came from a free-kick just inside the Samba half that was launched forward into the box. Samba held their line and allowed the opposition striker to stand 10 yards offside directly in front of keeper Smith. The wind assisted strike headed for the top corner and Smith could only claw at it once he picked up its trajectory. A case for impeding the keeper was made and dismissed, 0-2. Fortune was again absent for the Carlton third goal, but there was also good forward play involved from Carton. The striker accepted the ball on the edge of the box and dribbled laterally to the right. After seeing the ref award a softish penalty early on, the Samba defence looked tentative to commit to a tackle until the striker unleashed his shot. There was a half block on the strike that took a horrible loop into the air that found it's way over Smith and into the corner of the net, 0-3. It was already beginning to look ominous for the team in green, but they continued to plug away and were finally rewarded toward the end of the first half. After rinsing the visiting full back, Francis was crudely upended wide of the Carlton penalty box. Gibbons whipped in a menacing free-kick that was only partially blocked by the defence which gave Street the opportunity to pounce and ram home a lifeline, 1-3.

Down but certainly not out at this stage, the half-time team talk centred around getting the next all important goal. With a strong wind behind them and playing well, they sensed one goal in their favour could turn the tie on it's head. For 25 minutes, Samba knocked but were rebuked without creating too many clear cut chances and whilst Carlton were not without their own opportunities in that same period, it was in the final 20 minutes that they made their run for home. With time beginning to get away from Samba, Boughton was brought on to replace Wilford. C.Taylor was ready to enter the game too for the struggling Gamba who was cramping up when the visitors struck an all important blow. Some hesitant defending eventually allowed a shot at Smith that ricocheted back off the keeper to the feet of the striker who calmly slotted home, 1-4. C.Taylor immediately replaced Gamba with Dollochin moving to wing back. With 5 minutes left, Gibbons took himself off for the ever ready Ballard and 3 more goals followed. Pushing Street forward and going man for man at the back, Samba were caught out badly on the counter and were easily punished, 1-5. G.Taylor then rolled the ball from the ensuing kick-off straight to a visiting attacker who wrong footed the defence and scored to make it two goals in about 14 seconds, 1-6. With time running out, Samba eventually received a favourable decision from the ref as Ballard and Francis combined with the latter getting chopped down in the area. As G.Taylor had the week before, Francis hit the post from the spot, but on this occasion the paintwork sided with Samba, 2-6. The overall outcome may not have been harsh on Samba, but the scoreline definitely was. But they were beaten by a better organised, quicker and ultimately more clinical team on the day. After beating Samba in this same competition and at the same stage last season, Retford went on to win the cup. It would not be a surprise if history repeated itself and Carlton Reserves went on to lift the trophy.