Remembrance Sunday saw Loughborough Phoenix away to Oadby Owls.
It was to be another action packed game. The ground was heavy from a week of unsettled weather and overuse of the pitch which caught the boys out to start.
Within minutes a cross in from Massimo saw Ollie surge a run into the box and being challenged by the defender only to be brought down by a late challenge.
A penalty was awarded and remarkably from the disaster's of practicing penalties for a week or so by Ollie he stepped up confidently and buried it into the top right corner.
Reeling from confidence of being ahead, Phoenix mounted a surge of attacks on goal with some really nice two touch football.
A break by Finn playing right wing back position with a series of one twos with Osayd, led Osayd making the final run into the penalty area and gifting a beautiful assist to Ollie giving him his second goal.
Within minutes the opposition made a counterattack break on the right and unfortunately catching Luke and Cameron out, playing between them and lobbing the ball beyond Rocco's reach.
Once again Oadby launched another attack and this time gaining possession in midfield from a mishit goal kick, playing a short ball through between the centre backs and finishing with a shot just past the fingertips of our goalkeeper.
It must be said we were a little complacent in our approach for a while during the game and our own worst enemy for not holding firm in midfield and protecting our defenders and control of the midfield game.
Just before the end of the first half Tom mounted a run on goal straight down the middle towards the penalty area and laid off a perfect pass for Ollie to finish off with a shot to the bottom left corner giving us a 3-2 advantage at half time.
Second half saw a little jig around of formation to help us hopefully get the win, but also due to not having any subs to replace Massimo who had taken a hefty knock to his ankle.
Once again a few bad passes due to the heaviness of the pitch in the penalty area saw Oadby gain their equalizer.
Oadby were up for the fight now but fortunately Rocco too was up for the fight a made some excellent saves, some excellent defending from Jack, Luke Cameron and AJ.
AJ playing in a position that he was quite used to was excellent and relentless in being everywhere to block the path of the opposition. for this reason he picks up "Man of the Match today".
Phoenix not happy with this began to turn the heat up and made break after break some shrewd work in midfield by Evan, Finn, Osayd and Tom.
On the 60th minute Evan launched a run from just inside our half and dribbled and battled by five players to hit home a glorious goal into the top right corner, another one for "Goal of the Month".
Not content with just one goal in 65th minute another attack led by Finn and Osayd led to Tom picking up the ball on the edge of the box a hitting a sledge hammer of a shot by the goalkeeper giving Phoenix a final score of 5-3.
However do not let me take away the fact that I am delighted in the result for them today.
When they played they really did play well, it was lovely to watch and made me and Shawn smile ear to ear.
I thought in the first half they passed excellently and did some lovely Tikka-taka football and looked very impressive.
The boys need to remember to hold position and not wonder off, today this would have resulted in a more comfortable win perhaps. I always say the chances will come, just be patient and hold firm to position so your team mates know where you are.
This morning once again they equally showed that they still have the fight in them and they were prepared to fight to the very end to get the win they deserved.
Well done boys good result and entertaining as always.
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