Superb Team Performance From Old Meads

Amateur Football Combination Premier Division: Old Thorntonians 0 Old Meadonians 5

This season’s end game is nigh as Old Meadonians are in the final throes of bidding to place a record ninth league title cup in their trophy room. However, they are still nip and tuck with Old Parmiterians who have swopped places with Meads in the top spot twice in this month’s run in and supreme irony prevails as these two teams have to play each other in what could be a shoot-out at Riverside Lands.

On Saturday Meads chose to sharpen their claws with a clinical dissection of struggling Old Thorntonians who, teetering one point above the relegation zone, offered little threat to their purposeful visitors. With Jack Costello, Matt Britner and top scorer Craig Jones out injured Meads brought in Dan Donovan at left back for his first game since dislocating his shoulder and Ed Glover had a recuperating rest on the bench. Also, while the return of centre back Aidan Chapman was important in bolstering the back four, it was even more important to energise the mid-field whence it seemed the team’s somewhat disjointed performance last week had originated. This was achieved by the simple but, in the event, highly successful expedient of giving Charlie Cain his head by moving him forward from left back to the left of mid-field from where he had captained the league under twenty-one side a fortnight ago.

The second rewarding and highly successful move was to hand Mike Richards the task of leading the line as stand in for Craig Jones which he did with a highly refined elegance. The result was startling as Meads regained their appetite with a voracious feeding frenzy, scoring almost at will while pacing themselves by allowing their hosts to play with the ball in their own territory and no mans’ land. The visitors didn’t take long to put their hosts’ noses out of joint when just three minutes in, striker Nick Wilson held off his marker to slot home into the bottom right hand corner from fifteen yards. Five minutes later Charlie Cain began his pay-back for being allowed the freedom of the park by working a one two with Richards and thundering the ball across the keeper from just inside the left hand edge of the area. Now Richards who had graced the stage from the start weighed in with a trapeze act as he headed one of a series of Cain’s high flying corners into the roof of the net off the underside of the bar in the thirtieth minute.

The second half saw no let-up as Meads allowed Thorns little respite. The hosts’ main tactic seemed to be aerial frontal launches into the box which were comfortably dealt with by the combined efforts of keeper Simon Greening and centre backs Lawrie Pointer and Aidan Chapman. The scoring rate was maintained by Cain beating the defence to the punch and sliding in a cross from the right on the hour for his second and John Shea capped a commanding mid-field performance by converting a Matt Allen cross after the latter had made a refreshing return to the team following a rewarding season in the reserves.

For Meads’ manager Luke Graham this was a superb team performance and a timely return to form. He commended Joe Harrison’s and Dan Donovan’s excellence at full back, Mike Richards’ sublime play up front and Aidan Chapman’s captaincy but named Charlie Cain MoM for his enterprise, non-stop mid-field running and the crowning glory of his two goals.

Squad: Greening, Harrison, Pointer, Chapman, Donovan, Shea, Gowers, Bright (Richardson), Cain, Wilson (Allen), Richards, sub (not used) Glover.

April 26, 2017