Day 3
Sunday 18th June 2004 - Breakfast was served at 9pm and just about everyone got up for some breakfast this time around. Andy Parker came to the hotel to deliver a freshly washed kit. Big thanks to the hard work Andy put in to cleaning the kit overnight for us so we had a nice dry, clean kit to put on. At around 10:15am we set off to go setup camp again at Boddington Hall.
Team vs Birmingham - Adis was drafted into the starting lineup for the match showing the strength in depth we had in the team this year around. It was decided to be a 3-5-2 formation again with Paul El, Duds and Denti in the back line. Unfortunately skip was still struggling to get his ankle going so Dave who joined us on the day stepped up and went in net for us, a big thanks to Dave for doing this. The midfield had Dan in the anchor role, with Mike supporting and Adis behind the front two. Out wide right Gaz was doing a fine job all tournament and kept that role while Andy took on the left hand side.
BIRMINGHAM MATCH REVIEW
Birmingham started very aggresively try to kick the Internet Millers off the Park. Jebu and Denti both doing well not to react to extremely rash challenges that resulted in bookings. However, early in the game we felt that victory would be ours if we kept our shape and passing going.
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A few early chances for Steve were missed but the Internet Millers kept plugging away and the defence never really looked threatened at all. Eventually a massive kick by Dave from the goal line was sent up field, it appeared harmless enough but the central defender nodded on perfectly straight to Steve who mishit his shot but fooled the keeper completely! 1-0 and a great start.
It was only a few minutes later that Internet Millers made it 2-0 and effectively killed the game. A lovely ball down the line by Gaz allowed Jebu to pace away from the defenders and cut inside, with just the keeper to beat but at a tight angle Jebu squared for Steve who powered home, the keeper got a touch but not enough to stop it. A nice team goal.
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It was almost 3-0 immediately afterwards, Steve broke clear down the left and crashed a shot against the upright with Jebu just missing the rebound. Then a few minutes later another good chance almost fell to Jebu but Steve didnt manage to square the ball in time.
The second half was quiet. The Internet Millers made a number of changes but Birmingham never really looked like getting past the midfield and when they did Denti was awesome at the back commanding the line. Paul El had a fantastic game picking up any balls that strayed between the midfield and defence with Duds very powerfull in the tackle.
It was great to not go out in the first match of the cup and we were confident moving into the next round.
Click here for Part 9