A good performance at home to Dallington, giving us our biggest ever win, despite missing three of our best players. We looked distinctly ordinary for much of the first half, but we got stronger in the second half.
With Martin Hill rested and Greg Byrne and Chris Newble unavailable we had key players missing in defence, midfield and attack, but we took the lead when Michael Ide reacted first to a Ross McCarter shot that the goalkeeper failed to hold. Chris Newbury increased the lead shortly afterwards, but we continued to sit back and allow Dallington to play, which almost cost us.
Jamie Hards was adjudged to have brought down a Dallington player and they put the resulting spot kick past him, but the referee ordered a retake as he had not blown his whistle and the retaken penalty hit the post.
We continued to miss chances in the first half but towards the end of the half Ross McCarter scored a couple of goals, the second being a very cool finish.
We had a better shape in the second half when Chris Phillips came on and Jack Holden dropped to right-back. It took a while to add to the goal tally, but eventually Ross McCarter completed his hat-trick and Nick Edwards finished off a good move involving Chris Phillips and Ross McCarter.
Ben Spring started to remember his plan to score a hat-trick. He scored two goals, the second a powerful long-range shot, and thought he had scored a third before it was disallowed for offside.
Dallington were well beaten by this stage and Ross McCarter became the unstoppable goal machine, scoring four more goals. Even then it was Ross McCarter who was back helping out the back four before setting Chris Phillips away who made a strong run for our 13th goal.
There were some very good performances, notably Tom Ryan in defence, Ben Spring and Chris Newbury in midfield, and Jack Holden worked hard, but for a great all-round performance (not just for the seven goals) Ross McCarter was chosen as man of the match. |