Copthorne 0 (0) v (3) 5 Godalming Town – League
At last, a comfortable win for the Gs!
Yet another visit to Copthorne and the home of Horsham F.C. It has been a good ground for the Gs to play at recently.
I asked Mo, before the game, if he could please deliver a less stressful result for the fans, and he delivered. The score could easily have been more, but for the reactions of the Copthorne keeper, who overall had a good game.
For a change the Gs started brightly and for the first 15 minutes, or so dominated both possession and territory, putting their hosts under pressure from the off. Great to see.
The home keeper was a little rash in trying to play out of defence, very early on in the game when Jonny Miller latched on to the stray ball and managed to create a very long range effort, first time, towards the home goal while the keeper was not at home, but it did not find the target.
The Gs continued to press their hosts in the opening exchanges, which were pretty well exclusively played out at the home team’s end of the pitch.
On around 16 minutes the home side gave away a silly free kick, wide of the left hand side of the Copthorne penalty area. With no Mark Soares in the line-up it was Elliott Creely who stepped up to take the kick. He did not just lift the ball in, he blasted it and, although the home keeper got his right hand to it, he could do nothing to stop it finding the back of the net on his near post side. The G 1 – 0 up.
The Gs were awarded a couple of corners, the second of which on their right flank. Jonny swung this one in beautifully with his left foot and there to meet it was Elliott again at the far post, heading the Gs into a 2 – 0 lead. Elliott now on a hat trick.
Will May used his pace to burst onto a loose ball on the right side of the home goal and he hit a powerful low drive, but it ended up in the side netting.
Sam Fernley was enjoying using his pace down the wing and having hit at shot that was blocked, then recovering the rebound he played the ball back to Deji Adeosun whose shot clipped a defender and went over the crossbar for another corner. This led to another Gs build up featuring Tayo finishing it with a powerful low shot into the back of the net before being flagged as offside. So that one did not count.
Then, as the Gs continued their assault on their host’s goal in open play Jonny again swung the ball beautifully into the 6 yard box from the left, where Will May was on hand to say “Thank you very much” and headed the Gs third cleanly past the home stopper. 3 – 0 now to the Gs.
Copthorne did manage an attempt on the Gs goal, following a free kick that they were awarded near the centre circle. It found a team mate who manufactured a shot that comfortably cleared the crossbar.
Sam kept working his way down the left side and after one such venture the attack saw the final ball with Tayo who unleashed a cracking drive that the home keeper did well to save, turning the ball around for yet another Gs corner.
After one hand ball that the referee did penalise out on their left, the Gs seemed to have another inside the home box, which looked pretty clear to me, but not the referee. Richard Keown certainly seemed to have no problem seeing it either, as the ref went over to “have a word with him.”
Anyway not long after the ref was pointing to the penalty spot for a poor tackle on a Gs player. Deji Alabi in the end agreed with Cam that he would do the honours, but despite a very wiggly run up Deji did not hit his shot with sufficient power to find the net. The Copthorne keeper getting down well to it.
Virtually straight after that the ref decided that was it for the first half, the teams leaving the pitch with the Gs 3-0 up.
No changes to the Gs line up that I saw as the teams returned to the pitch and why would you if you were doing so well?
To their credit Copthorne must have found a few words at half time to invigorate and restore footballers fresh from the “Mo Sher Book of Half Time Chats” as they came out and went straight onto the front foot and moving the play at least into the Gs side of the half way line for a fair bit of the first 20 minutes of the second half. But they still could not fashion anything much to worry Steve Douglas.
Then a great move between Cam and Tayo saw the ball in the back of the Copthorne net again but unfortunately this was also offside, but great to see the interplay.
Then half an hour into the second half the first changes were made. Malik coming on for Nana at right back and minutes later Cam was replaced by Mazza and Shi came on for Deji Alabi.
Then the tireless Elroy came on to give Sam a rest after another great performance about 5 minutes later.
But, the Gs were not just seeing the game out.
Malik made his way through the middle of the pitch, before slipping the ball to Shi on his right. Shi played a further ball through to Tayo on his right who attacked at pace beating a couple of defenders before fooling the home keeper as he looked to try to go left around him to open up the goal to him, but then cheekily just clipped the ball into the net on the keepers nearside as the keeper went the wrong way. 4 -0 now to the Gs.
If there was any hope left, of at least a consolation goal for the home side, it was extinguished soon after when Shi delivered a terrific ball from wide on the right, into the 6-yard box, just above the players heads. And who was there? Probably the smallest player on the pitch, Malik to head home strongly from close range and add to his tally for the season. So 5 – 0 now.
A very comfortable win, as it should have been from the respective team positions in the table, that will see the Gs at the top of the League for Christmas. Let’s hope they are still there at the end of the season. There will be far stronger challenges to come and there is no room for resting on ones laurels, as they say. It would be quite painful too.
Line up:- Steve Douglas In goal, Alex Afful, Joe Moriarty, Elliott Creely, Sam Fernley, Cam Edwin, Deji Adeosun, Jonny Miller, Deji Alabi, Tayo Adekoya and Will May.
Bench:- Ali Hadaddji, James Mariner, Malik Shittu, Shi Ndiulor and Elroy Wealthyland
Next up Dorkinian’s First, Wednesday 17th December 7.45pm at Wey Court in the County Cup.
COYGs