We took to the pitch with only 6 players due to holidays etc. I had agreed with the Sway manager that he would only play 6 also, but he changed his mind at the last minute and they went with 7 (which they were perfectly entitled to do).
The extra man made such a difference, even against a so called 'weaker team'. Sway made total use of the extra body & played the ball around us a lot. However they didn't really make too many chances in the first half. Emre & Zak seemed to have everything under control protecting Hermione's goal.
Our midfield 3 of Harvey, Oliver & Elliott played some beautiful football between them, passing in triangles and playing keep ball. One such attractive move led to our goal. Harvey to Oliver, Oliver to Elliott, who played a first time through ball back to the running Oliver, who took one touch & buried the ball from the edge of the box.
After that there was just one scary moment for us where the ball trickled across the face of our goal, H beaten for once, only for a Sway player to try and finish it, stare in amazement as Hermione somehow got back across her goal & made the save (with her chin!). Heroic stuff!
The team came off puffing at half time. No subs & a man down. They knew they were in for a long 20 mins. They were all stripping off their under shirts as it was a warm evening. We discussed having to move the ball quicker & also playing balls to run on to because we were getting surround on the ball so quickly.
20 minutes of hard work later, we survived a couple of scares where they used the extra man & had an easy overload on our defence. Through a combination of bad decision making by them & great defending by Zak & Emre, they didn't capitalise.
We should have made easier work of the match when Oliver found himself making a cross from the right and the best chance of the game fell at Elliott's right boot. He swung his leg first time at the ball only to see it just rising over the bar!
There was no way through for Sway but you have to give them credit for the passing they did, even against 6 players. very nice play from them. However, victory was ours - extending our unbeaten run to 9 games.
One more game to go.
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