Otterbourne Football Club First Team Match Reports

Saturday 29th August 2009: Winchester Castle 2 Otterbourne 3

Line Up: Flood, Willson, Gallant, Jannaway, Kelly, Knight, Calder, Clark, Beasley, Miczarek, Luffman Subs: Milne, T Kerr

After the impressive resolve against QK Southampton in mid-week Otterbourne travelled the short trip to bottom of the table Winchester Castle looking to capitalise on their good form in front of goal.

Manager Bruiser had to make several changes, Chris Knight replaced Kevin Gleeson, Paul Clark regained his place out on the right and Gary Calder made his first team league debut partnering Knight in the centre of midfield.

Winchester Castle fielded a side noticeably missing a few familiar faces but they always make tough opponents.

The Otters took early control of the game with Knight snapping away at the heels of the Castle midfield. In the season’s opening games The Otters have lacked bite but this afternoon Knight was setting out his intentions early on.

Neat football was flowing throughout the away side as the more settled 4-4-2 formation looks suitably bedded in.

The defence of Craig Willson, Dan Gallant, JJ and skipper Marc Kelly, has remained settled over the last few games, resulting in a noticeable rise in confidence.

Otterbourne soon became dominant in possession as Knight and Calder sowed up the centre and Paul Clark began his afternoon of terrorising the Castle left back and linesman.

Paul Beasley on the left hand side was linking up well with Tom Miczarek and Richard Luffman and chasing every lost cause looking to add to his already impressive 4 goal tally.

The players were criticised against QK that they didn’t win any corners but within 20 minutes of the first half against Castle they had already forced several.

The Winchester Castle goal started to look fragile as The Otters grew in confidence, Miczarek, Beasley and Luffman all coming close to opening the scoring.

The deadlock was finally broken after 10 minutes of continuous pressure on the Castle defence. Good work out on the left saw Miczarek place a perfectly weighted cross into Luffman who, when on such form, would not miss.

Castle kicked off and were immediately under the same amount of pressure as the first half as Otterbourne started to play their best football of the season. The ball was on the deck being switched from left to right waiting for an opportunity to penetrate the weakening Castle defence.

A fine through ball from midfield saw Luffman in on goal. The Castle keeper could only parry out to the on-charging Knight who slammed home his first of the season.

Somehow the referee managed to notch up 8 minutes of first half injury time and on 53 minutes a floated free kick into the Otterbourne penalty area caused confusion as Kelly flicked the ball over the approaching Jamie Flood and into the net.

The second half saw no let-off from Otterbourne as they continued to out play Castle in every area. Dan Gallant was establishing himself at right back, winning challenges both on the deck and in the air, looking to go forward at every opportunity.

Gary Calder was not looking out of place holding the play in the centre allowing Knight, Clark and Beasley to exploit the acres of space they were finding across the park.

Otterbourne stretched their lead further when another fine corner was met at the back post by Jon Jannaway as the centre half claimed the first of the 5 goal target set out to him and Andy Kerr at the beginning of the season.

Clark was replaced with Aaron Milne and Luffman with Tom Kerr. The latter immediately clashing with the Castle centre half as he steamed down the line.

With the amount of play that Otterbourne had, at times some of it sublime, you would have expected more goals. Dan Gallant rose like a salmon from a corner only for his header to be finely saved. Paul Beasley shot over from 6 yards which he’d admit that it would have been easier to score than miss.

The last few minutes were made slightly twitchy when, again deep into questionable injury time, Winchester Castle scored from their first and only shot. Castle’s number 10 picked the ball up 30 yards out and unleashed a curling shot into the top corner. Probably the best goal he’ll ever score.

The referee finally admitted he’d have to end the game sometime and blew up.

Otterbourne proved that they can play consistently fine football over 90 minutes with not a bad performance from any of the 13 players involved. The performances from Gallant, Jannaway, Kelly and Willson especially stand out with a man of the match display from Knight.

The final score slightly flattered the home side.