K Sports 0 – 5 GWHC2s

Eager to get back to winning ways GW2s arrived at Cobdown with lessons drawn from the previous weeks loss to Sevenoaks. The message from the Captain was three-fold.
Intensity; we needed to ensure we transitioned from defence to attack and attack to defence faster than we have been.
Width; we needed to make sure we maintained our wide options to spread the play.
Urgency, we needed to reset fast and look for early balls when on.

As the game got under way things would feel very evenly matched. Amit Ubhi struggling in the middle to have his usual impact after a night out on the town came up against a playmaker K Sports had who looked to dictate play for the hosts.

Chances would fall to both teams and as the substitutes rotated around the Gravesham side stumbled across a strategic formula for this game that felt like it could offer the best chance of a good result. Ubhi moved forwards alongside Elliott where he would prove more creative and leaving Jon Booth, Reuben Morphew and Si Bradley as three players in the middle able to shut down the K Sports midfield and win that centre of the pitch battle.
The change allowed Zak Rowland and Alex Spurgeon to run the channels and create opportunities with one coming immediately before the half time whistle. Spurgeon turning the defenders and launching a high shot across the goal only for Captain Elliott to divert it into the net.

The goal was perfect timing as half time arrived and GW could reflect positively on the half. The decision to ask that the 3 midfielders stay as they were without subbing seemed the right call and the next 10 minutes of play would serve to reinforce this.
Gravesham & Wellcome were about to hit K Sports with their own form of blitz-krieg as three further goals were added to their tally in less than 10 minutes of play.
First a short corner earned would see a shot from Stu Marnham saved only for his rebound to be deflected high into the net off the end of Elliott’s stick.
Then some nifty play by Spurgeon would see him lift the ball into the net at pace.
And then moments later after a string of passes John Booth from near the top D would pass it into a space K Sports had kindly left in the goal.
It was a peak at the devastating potential this team is capable of, but the other side of their game was what would go on to see them keep a clean sheet.

Down the other end Keaton “Juan-Carlos Hernandez” Gates was putting down heroics with save after save to stop K Sports getting a goal back. Such was the intensity that Richard Atwood and a counterpart would find themselves yellow carded and sin-binned for a confrontation. This wouldn’t put off the Gravesham side though as they simply shuffled the team around with Bradley dropping back to CB and Boothy into blocker. It was the smoothest of changes and meant that when Atwood was again yellow carded moments after coming on again for a technical foul (stopping the ball from finding a forward for a goal with his foot) – despite being down to 10 men against 11 the Gravesham side were still having the better of the play. Jesse Bradley playing in his debut at 2s level was one of the reasons they were able to maintain energy levels as K Sports struggled to deal with their organisation.
One final hurrah – Ubhi finally waking up from his slumber would dribble around a few players and fire home as he arrived at the semi-circle line. 5-0.
Later that day news would arrive of a 10-0 hammering by Sevenoaks against another team – which would add huge perspective to the result this team had achieved the previous week.
We have a long way to go and plenty to still improve - but GWHC2s is full of exciting potential for this season.

Goal scorers:
Elliott (2)
Spurgeon
Booth
Ubhi
Man of the match – Keaton “Massimo” Gates