Nuthall — Sat 17 Sep 2011

Match report

Half time: 1 – 0

FC Samba took to the field looking to restore pride as well as earn points after two successive 5-1 defeats. After an opening day victory, Samba had slumped to three defeats in a row and needed both a performance and a result against Nuthall. Gibbons’ resisted the temptation to tinker with the formation but welcomed back Wilford, Brewer and himself as the central midfield three had a more familiar look. Shomani was promoted from the reserve side for his first team debut after a string of impressive performances. Samba started brightly and in the early exchanges exhibited a greater shape than at any point against Kashmir. They soon got their reward for a disciplined start when G.Taylor all too easily sent Nellist into the clear and he guided his right foot shoot into the bottom left hand corner to score his first goal in Samba colours. Nellist obviously developed a taste for it as shortly afterwards he hit a lovely curling effort that just cleared the crossbar. Samba were rarely troubled in the first half as Nuthall lacked creativity and were unable to penetrate the Sandboy’s back line. The home side were always the more likely, though for all their dominance they didn’t create a host of chances as the final ball on occasion let them down.

At half time the improvement on previous performances were noted but Gibbons was eager for Samba to kill off the game. Nuthall improved after the break after a pretty impotent first half but never really had Samba on the back foot. Territorially the game was more even though and as the minutes ticked by the 1-0 lead felt very slender. Nicholls was largely redundant, bar one terrific save from a free kick 20yds from goal, the Samba keeper had to fling himself to his right to preserve his clean sheet but that is the closest Nuthall came to a goal. With about 20 minutes to go a decisive few minutes put the game beyond doubt. Firstly Temple got his head on an outswinging corner and G.Taylor was sufficiently alert to sweep the ball home from 8yds within a crowded penalty box. Only a few minutes later G.Taylor had a brace after Swallow, on for Gibbons, released the Samba top scorer in the left hand channel and he finished confidently with his left foot to make it 3-0 in a game that was remarkably similar to the opening day victory over Real United Reserves. Samba could have had more in truth with Francis particularly unlucky not to have claimed an assist with a series of penetrating runs, that weren’t met with the finishes that they deserved. However, after recent defeats, Samba were more than satisfied with a solid performance, a clean sheet and three points.