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ANDOVER PROVE TOUGH NUTS TO CRACK BUT CENTURIONS FIND A WAY THROUGH FOR A WIN
Cirencester Town 3
Andover 2
Cirencester Town were given a real test as Andover peppered their defence with a series of searching passes early on. Struggling to cope with a Route One attack, they survived and got back into the game. While the final score looked close in truth they could well have notched four or five goals in another exhilarating surge of attacking football in the middle hour of the game.
With Carl Brown sidelined at least until March with a knee injury requiring surgery, Mr Hughes played Academy prospect Rob Hoskin in his place. Jamie Reid was back in the starting line up, as was Tom Etheridge and Mr Hughes again gave his team a challenge by setting them up in a 4 3 3 formation.
Mr Leader has recruited well, his team featuring a few from last season's squad but now much more physically imposing and clearly not one to subside when the going gets tough. He had probably the smallest goal keeper ever to appear at the Corinium but whatever David Tasker lacked in stature he more than made up for it by sending down a series of prodigious 70 yard goal kicks throughout the match. And he proved to have a safe pair of brave hands as Ciren threw crosses at him throughout an entertaining match.
Andover fielded two gigantic front men and the visitors long ball tactics were clear from the off. The pair proceeded to win every ball sent down to them and kept the Ciren defence at full stretch as they tried to contain the rain of balls falling in from the heavens. Ciren kept them out but not without difficulty, Lee Stevens hitting his own crossbar on 2 minutes as he tried to clear a loose ball after Jamie Green smacked in a return cross from the right to catch the Ciren defence turning backwards.
It took Ciren time to come to grips with the barrage and Andover should have notched twice in the first 10 minutes. First Sean Cook then Matt Czastka latched onto knockdowns within sight of goal but sent their efforts wide with Matt Bath exposed in the Ciren nets. Czastka had another clean chance on 8 minutes, Jamie Green finding him clear inside the box but his shot was charged down at the very last moment by a flying, committed, Neil Griffiths. Close, that. And uncomfortable.
At the back Andover were just as big, Mark James (in a distracting 9 shirt) and Jono Richardson forming a massive barrier to contain Scott Griffin and Jody Bevan. They sent every attempt to get beyond them flying back down the park. Ciren needed to bring the ball down and pass. Finally, in the 10th minute, they managed it. Thommo > Reid > Jody and then up the line to Hosky saw the lad scoot outside Sancha and cut inside only for the lino to decide the ball had crossed the bye-line. The much better positioned speccies closer to the action thought otherwise. They would, wouldn't they.
In a frantic, high tempo opening it was not until the 15 minute mark that Ciren finally sustained an attack long enough to send in a dangerous centre. Scott Griffin did well to make space behind James to connect with a Tom Etheridge cross. But having done all the hard work Griff got himself an inch or two under the ball and headed over the bar.
Ciren were still scrambling to keep the Andover barrage at bay but on 20 minutes created probably the clearest chance so far when Hosky again drove past Sancha with an exquisite change of pace then released a cruel ground pass across the goal. Three yards out it was screaming for a connecting touch but try as he might Griff could not quite get the contact and the ball squirted wide.
On 23 minutes Cook again was first to another Tasker mortar and he headed Jamie Green clear into the Ciren area. With the goal at his mercy his snatched pull at the trigger resulted in a merciful misfire. It should have been 0-1 Andover.
Then it most deffo should have been 1-0 Ciren. At long last the ball was held in control 20 yards out. First Hosk controlled a pass in from Thompson, switched to Griffin who looked inside then switched back outside to Egg. Who curled an exceptional pass in beyond the defence and Jody was in space. He rose to connect, should have made a full nut contact, but instead skimmed the ball wide. Ouch.
Five minutes later Abingdon did what had been on the cards from the off. Again Jamie Green raced onto a Cook knockdown and although Matt Bath was coming out, and could perhaps have reached the ball first, the players came together and the ball rebounded off Bath to hit Green and then trickle over the line for Andover to take the lead.
Ciren, who had only played their passing football in fleeting moments so far, girded their loins to pull this game back. Although iconic midfielder Jamie Reid was very much out of touch on his return after suspension by sheer will they dragged themselves back into the game. Rob Hoskin, wide on the left, had been showing a deft touch and it was through his ability to make the ball stick that Ciren finally found a chink in the massive Andover defensive wall.
Twice, chasing optimistic passes wide, Hoskin had shown he had the beating of Jason Sancha and when on 29 minutes he collected the ball out wide and then completely diddled the defender only to be crudely stopped it changed the match. Tom Etheridge swung in a perfect free kick and Ciren skipper Neil Griffiths was not going to be beaten to the cross and rose to bullet the equaliser into the back of the net..
A minute later, again Hoskins was free. This time Egg had come up the left and driven in a low cross to the edge of the box. Hosks came to meet it, spun outside and was beyond the bewildered Swayne. Set to shoot, instead he looked up and found Jody coming in. The shot was half blocked and agonisingly for Reidy the next block fell just behind him as he was coming past Richardson and going clear into space.
Five more minutes of agony for Sancha, in which Hoskin had continually tortured him to send in a stream of dangerous crosses, ended when the youngster had his own shot cleared away with Tasker beaten to concede a throw in. Tom Etheridge produced an extraordinary effort to land the ball on the far side of the six yard box where Lyndon Tomkins repaid the towsing he had been receiving at the other end to rise above Cook and bullet his header into the back of the net for 2-1 Ciren on 33 minutes.
Next minute it could have been all over. Jody, by now pumped up and knowing he was going to get something out of this game, made an immense effort to get to a free kick after Jamie Reid had been dropped by the increasingly malicious Jureyeff. Nodding the ball back inside, it dropped into space 6 yards out. As Neil Griffiths pounced Mark James threw himself into the block to stop a certain goal. And hurt himself, not to return after the break.
Bevan was now the Ciren player in an unstoppable mood, bursting into the left side channel on 40 minutes, getting to the ball off a really clever disguised Griffin pass then surging past Richardson to send a superlative low cross into the six yard box with this time Hosky just too far off it to convert. Andover were wobbling, big time.
The next goal would be crucial and Ciren found it within 5 minutes of the restart. Andover had again started with a barrage but when Jamie Reid at long last had a calm moment on the ball to produce an on target pass he found Scott Griffin upfield in space. He poked the ball up the left channel and Jody Bevan was already on the run. Outpacing Richardson, he got to the ball 20 yards out, just in front of the desperately advancing Tasker, and guided the ball past him and into the net for a precious 3-1 lead for Ciren. Jody only does that cos the piley-on afterwards is always special.
Ciren could have put the game to bed as they attacked imperiously for the next 10 minutes, Andover just about surviving wave after wave of first time passes and zinging crosses that put Tasker and his gasping defenders into all sorts of conniptions. Tom Etheridge, back from suspension and injury, was having a purple patch as he supported the creative play of Chris Thompson with perfectly timed runs up the left. He put two gorgeous crosses in for The Griff and Jody but both times the chance was missed.
As happens so often in football, a moment of inattention is punished. Green got away on yet another long ball, again the central defenders seeming to be caught flat, and should have done better than screw horribly wide with Bathy angrily exposed.
On 58 minutes, after Ciren had seemed to have attacked incessantly for five minutes, Tom Etheridge, moving across to cope with a routine pass wide, slipped and let Kyle Juryeff slide a centre into the middle. Rob Dean, Jamie Reid then Lyndon Tomkins all tried to hack the ball clear but it fell to sub Callum Nicholl who shot on the turn and beat Matt Bath inside his post for 3-2. It was again game on.
Ciren tore Andover to bits looking for the clincher, pass after pass ripping through their midfield and bisecting the defence. Hoskin, Griffin and Bevan all were put clean through but each time the speed of the movement flummoxed the officials who saw only a red and black shirt emerge from the blur of passes and made the judgement that the final pass was to an offside position. It frustrated Ciren.
When on 63 minutes Jureyeff chased a ball into the Ciren box Tom Etheridge was judged to have impeded his attempt to shoot. Richardson set himself, never looked convincing, and signalled his intention to Matt Bath who read it correctly and dived smartly to his right to grab the fierce but saveable spot kick.
Thereafter Ciren were never going to give Andover a sniff and resumed their free flowing attacks. Tasker did well to keep efforts from Griffin, Bevan and and the now fully on song Reid at bay. Though how the referee could not see a penalty on 80 minutes when Hoskin darted onto a lovely through pass from Chris Thompson to go clear, sidestep Tasker and then have his legs dragged from under him was known only to the arbitro, ignoring the frantically waving linesman.
Andover last season equalised from a corner on 94 minutes and when their final frantic attack ended with a corner, it could have seen history repeating itself. Appropriately Jureyeff, who had been dishing out fouls with impunity for the final 15 minutes as Andover lost discipline, scuffed his flag kick and Ciren had ended the night at the top of the League.
That was a hard game to win and even though they are deep in the depths no doubt Taunton on Saturday will be equally difficult. They may not have the organisation and game plan as Andover but they are fit lads and will welly into every challenge and chase every ball. And if we don't cope, we'll be stuffed.
Cirencester: Matt Bath, Lee Stevens, Tom Etheridge, Neil Griffiths (c), Chris Thompson, Lyndon Tomkins Y64, Jamie Reid, Rob Dean [Ed Ward 86], Jody Bevan, Scott Griffin [Jason Welsh 79 Y82], Rob Hoskin subs: Ryan Parker, Dan Wallington, Mark Pritchett
Andover: David Tasker, Jason Sancha, Adam Gatcum, Tom Melledew, Jono Richardson, Bobby Swayne (c) Y46, Matt Czastka [Kyle Swayne 64], Jamie Green, Mark James [Callum Nicholl 45], Sean Cook [Rob Sadler 80], Kyle Juryeff subs: Mark Keogh, Josh Cotterell
Ref: Mr D Eaton, Tewkesbury Taken several matches here in the past though I best remember him for valiantly getting himself here for a preseason on that dreadful July day when most of Gloucestershire flooded after the rains. Clearly, his canoe was strapped to the top of his car that day because he got home safely.
Had one heck of a frantic match to arbitro this time and got nigh on everything right. Those who are moaning about the Hosky penno might care to remember he saw Lyndon make a clean tackle on Cook when the Lions fans were busy convincing themselves it was a nailed on penno. The ref gets but a second to see it – we work in different time frames – in other words, we don't have to decide in a moment so have the luxury of reflecting before deciding.
Asked about the Hosky penno afterwards – seen as Hosk taking the ball outside the 'keeps, letting the ball go wide and going over the 'keeps legs. My take – Hosk got to the ball, looked left, went right and diddled the keeps as he sent it away from him but was hooked by the keepers hand – is far too blurred on the trusty camera to be worth much more than an opinion.
Whatever – decision made and while the lino flagged like mad he had a side on view while the ref saw it from behind. And he was within 10 yards, mind. I was 20 yards way. Still a penno, though!
Att: 87 Disappointing. Andover Adver claims a fair few Lions fans were here. Maybe half a dozen?
MoM: Votes for Bathy – not surprising cos a penno save is dramatic – and Jody. Again, not surprising because that was one heck of a winner. Thommo again got votes and if we are honest, he again had a huge influence on the result. Rob Hoskin won it and I've no doubt that was because when we were on the rack first half he showed and we got control back again. I doubt Jason Sancha will be sending Hosky a Christmas card.
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