Sherwood FC — Sat 25 Nov 2006

Match report

Half time: 4 – 0

F.C. Samba returned to league action after their cup defeat to Nottinghamshire and the cancellation of the previous weeks game by Maid Marion. Francis was passed fit and took his place up front but Hawkins was sidelined with a groin injury. Due to heavy rain the night before the pitch was in poor condition but was deemed playable by the referee. The game started and Samba appeared to adjust well to the treacherous conditions, their passing game uninterrupted by the boggy pitch. It was Sherwood however who had the first shot in anger after their forward reacted quickest to a loose ball in the box. Ballard stood firm at his near post though and managed to push the ball away to safety. It wasn’t long however before Samba took the lead, with G.Taylor receiving the ball on the edge of the box , spinning to hit a shot which the keeper saved, but couldn’t hold, and Francis was on hand to tap the ball home. Samba started to exert real pressure on Sherwood and had a succession of corners, one of which found its way directly into the Sherwood goal. Doughty swung the ball in with his left foot and the ball evaded the keeper, the Samba forwards and the player on the line to double the advantage. Sherwood looked dangerous on the break though and after a misplaced pass in midfield the Sherwood striker was clean through on goal. He shot to Ballard’s right but the striker was denied by a superb reflex stop by the Samba keeper who managed to get enough purchase on the ball to divert it over the bar. Samba continued to press for the third goal and G.Taylor was foiled by the Sherwood keeper after being put clean through by Bassett. It was then Ballard’s turn again to produce the heroics, making himself big and getting a block on the Sherwood strikers shot and similar to the previous attempt, saw the ball deflect over the bar for a corner. Sherwood didn’t really threaten again in the first half but Samba were clearly in the mood and Gibbons got in on the act when he side footed home a cross from Francis who had wriggled free on the Samba right. Just a few minutes later it was four, with Captain Wilford surging from midfield to get on the end of a Lucas cross and punish Sherwood at the near post, for his fourth goal of the season. Samba ended the half in high spirits and took a four goal lead into half-time, though the mood was slightly soured by a fracas between C.Taylor and a Sherwood player following a poor tackle from the Sherwood man in the dying moments of the half.

Gibbons had been forced to withdraw at half-time with a troublesome hamstring and was replaced by Sharp. With the pitch representing nothing more than a quagmire the second half was always going to prove a more difficult task, and so it proved as slowly but surely Sherwood forced some territorial advantage. Samba were finding it difficult to get up the pitch but Sherwood were not really creating too much to worry Ballard in the Samba goal. Samba were now playing on the break but were increasingly frustrated by the Sherwood linesman who raised his flag at every opportunity. However, he couldn’t intervene when Francis picked the ball up inside his own half on the Samba left, turned and ran at the Sherwood defence. Francis turned on the turbo boosters and left three Sherwood players in his wake before forcing the ball into G.Taylor’s path, who expertly finished to give the score line an even more emphatic look. A sixth goal wasn’t long in waiting and again involved Francis running at Sherwood from deep. This time the defender tried to halt his progress at all costs but Francis remained calm and on his feet, just, to finish into the bottom left hand corner. Samba made a couple of substitutions and the game petered out with no more goals but Samba had C.Taylor to thank for maintaining their clean sheet when he headed a goal bound effort off the line from a Sherwood corner. Overall, on a dreadful pitch it had been a very impressive performance, against a Sherwood side who had recently experienced an upturn in fortunes.