Otterbourne Football Club First Team Match Reports

Saturday 24th October 2009 – Otterbourne 4 Liss 4 (3 – 1 pen)

Team: Flood, Kerr A, Willson, Kelly, JJ, Taylor, Milczarek, Cole, T. Kerr, Knight, Breeze Clark, Milne

Playing in the league Cup this weekend meant changes all-round from the team that played successfully on Tuesday, but no change there!

Liss had already beaten us in the league so we were expecting a tough game and were not disappointed!

From our kick off we managed to give Liss a throw in on the right hand side deep into our own half they played the ball around from this opening and managed to get a cross into the box which deceived the normally reliable JJ and there striker powered a header into the roof of the net.

We had to take JJ off after fifteen minutes as he was suffering from a migraine which is probably what caused his earlier mistake. Tom went to the back and I bought the returning from Egypt Aaron Milne on up front. Our re-shaped midfield was starting to get us back into the game and we started to create chances for our front two. Milne and Knight combined for Knight to just screw his shot wide, and Knight again got put through and was bought down as last week and we should have had a penalty.

It was all Liss could do to keep us at bay and they started time wasting. Eventually our pressure paid and Taylor was bought down in the box, up stepped Kelly to smash the ball past the keeper and into the onion bag just before half time.

We talked about Liss’s tactics and what to do to combat them and to keep up the good work that we had achieved later in the half

We got off to a great start of the half with Aaron squirming free and pulling the ball back for Knight to score. We were totally dominant but switched off in the 75th minute and allowed them to equalize.
Clarky replaced the tiring Breezer and we had some more opportunities to score but the game went to extra time.

Somehow in the first half of extra time Liss took the lead again but in the second half we showed great character. A shot by Cole was parried by the keeper into his path of Knight who bundled home. This led to even more pressure by us and Aaron was fed on the edge of the box by Taylor, he skipped around a defender and fired low and hard into the bottom corner. Taylor then had a shot which cannoned off the bar which no one could knock in for Otterbourne. This wasn’t a game for the faint hearted as right at the death Liss forced a corner, the ball was cleared out of the box and somehow one of the poorest Liss players fired an exorcet through the crowd of players and unsighted keeper into the net.

Penalties.

Marc stepped up and scored, Jamie saved the Liss kick, Clarky stepped up and buried it, Jamie saved the Liss kick, Gareth hit the bar from his kick and the Liss keeper scored to make it 2 – 1. Craig stepped up and scored and Jamie pulled off another save it was all over in Otters favour, hopefully this ill change our season’s luck as we now face Stoneham in the next round.