Division One (East)
Letcombe FC 0 Finchampstead 1
Saturday, 21 August 2004
Tidalwave sponsored Finchampstead made a good start to their 2004/05 campaign winning their opening league game at Letcombe 1-0, although to be fair, this scoreline flatters the hosts, who made five last ditch goal line clearances to prevent Finch from claiming a bagful.
With absentees through holidays and a wedding, three players made their Finch debut and all performed well in a keenly contested game against their well organised hosts.
Playing down the slope, Finch looked marginally the better side in the opening few minutes, although no clear cut scoring chances were created at either end, leaving the goalkeepers to enjoy the game without concern. In the 18th minute, Finch's continued tenacity around the eighteen yard box almost paid dividends when the Letcombe defence was pulled to pieces by some skilful interplay between Ryan Adger and Ashley Baynham, the latter having two fierce goal bound efforts blocked on the line by lunging defenders before the ball was eventually scrambled away for a corner. Three minutes later at the end of yet more penetrating approach play, Richard Earwicker drove the ball hard and low towards goal only to see it ricochet off Letcombe keeper Danny Peter's legs on his goal line, and again the loose ball was thumped to safety by the home defence, clearly to the relief of the now very vocal home supporters. Finch's perseverance was rewarded in the twenty-fifth minute when a superb cross field pass from skipper Jeremy Lynch dropped into the path of Chris Bark, whose cross into the far edge of the packed six yard box was thumped into the goal by a Letcombe defender under pressure from both Bruce Rolls and Ashley Baynham. Three minutes later at the other end, the Finch defence was caught forward in support of their midfield players, but as they raced back in an attempt to thwart a promising Letcombe move, Marcus Pearce did well to block a cross from Iain Whatley at the expense of a corner. This morale-boosting move spurred the home side into a period of attacking football which had the Finch defence under pressure for the first time. Having said that, it wasn't until the thirty-seventh minute that Stuart Harris in the Finch goal had to make his first real save, finger-tipping a twenty yard Ellis Bicknell free-kick over his crossbar.
Half Time: 0-1
The first ten minutes after the break was again fairly evenly contested, with play flowing from end to end without danger from either side, until Ryan Adger raced down the left past three defenders in a skilful surging run in the fifty-seventh minute, only to see his cross towards Bruce Rolls and Ashley Baynham at the far post cut out in mid-stream by full-back Liam Breen, with an open goal at the two strikers mercy had the ball reached them. With Finch once again much in control of the attacking play, in the sixty-fifth minute an excellent run by Dave Hurley up the sloping left wing ended with another good cross that was sliced away by the busy Liam Breen for a corner, but again this came to nothing as Letcombe cleared their lines. With seventeen minutes remaining, Danny Humphries replaced Ashley Baynham to add fresh legs to the Finch attack and he was soon in the thick of the action, combining well with Bruce Rolls. In the seventy-seventh minute, an inch perfect diagonal ball from Jeremy Lynch found Ryan Adger with space on the right and his equally pin-point cross towards Bruce Rolls was met with a powerful header that was somehow cleared off the Letcombe goal line, with the Finch striker looking dumb-struck after seeing what seemed like a certain goal denied. Richard Earwicker, struggling with the effects of an earlier injury, was replaced by Simon Flowerday in the fortieth minute and he quickly settled into the game to bolster the Finch midfield. As injury time ticked away, it was Danny Humphreys that nearly had the final say when he collected a long ball pumped out to the right and sent a delightful dipping shot towards goal that sailed just inches wide of the right post, with the goalkeeper stranded on the edge of his penalty area. After what seemed an eternity of added time referee Peter Cox's final whistle was a welcome sound for the Finch supporters and players as they celebrated their good start to the season.
With several players competing for places in the Finch first team line-up, there is strength in depth at the club this season, and this result against last season's runners-up was the perfect start.
Finchampstead has a busy week ahead of them, with league visits to Eton Wick on Tuesday 24th (6.15pm), Englefield Green Rovers on Saturday 28th (3.00pm) and neighbours Binfield on Bank Holiday Monday (3.00pm).
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