J-Bird (Sam Jacobson), James Davies and Sam 'Stubbo' Stubbington made their debuts today and Phil (Kimber) took over the (loose fitting!) arm band as our serving vice-captain.
Dan and Phil came into the midfield to fill some big boots, Sam came in at right back and Stubbo made his 20th birthday appearance on at right midfield.
The idea was to line up with the same successful 4-4-1-1 shape as in last weeks 3-0 win over Athletico Romsey, however, for most of the game it was more of a 4-2-4 due to the size of the pitch and (lack of) skill from the opposition.
As a team we camped high in the opposition half with as many as 6 men attacking at once limiting Braishfield to produce only long balls under sustained pressure.
Sadly in a game with oh so many goals I've forgotten how some went and even in the order they were scored but I'm sure a few angry Facebook messages from the scorers will lead to a follow up post with some more in depth analysis.
I shall try nonetheless...
Wilko bagged us the first goal very early on in the first half when his long range tester shot somehow managed to go straight through the goalkeeper and into the net.
Wilko also managed to stick the ball into the net in the 90th minute with a wonderful strike, but somehow the referee inexplicably blew the final whistle as the ball was on it's way into the top corner. Cheated.
Dan 'Debra' Burgess was on the score sheet twice with two short range efforts that I think were both from poorly dealt with corners (which were consistently brilliant from Stu and Wilko) and he somehow managed to totally spoon the ball from all of 2 yards (another corner) over the crossbar which would have sealed his hat-trick.
Captain Kimber was also keen to get in on the act and led by example scoring two fantastic goals. The first came when the ball was played through to him down the left of the penalty area, he cut in and advanced along the by-line before slotting the ball in at the near post with the goalkeeper stranded.
His second was one of the most wonderful goals I've seen in my career.
The ball was played wide to Nobbsy on the left who cut in onto his stronger foot an played the ball to Phil on the edge of the 18 yard box. He had time to look up before opening himself up and curling a wonderful ball over the 'keeper and into the top right hand corner.
As our only out and out striker it would have been a shame for Stu to not bag a goal. He spent most of the game making runs of the last defender and creating a large number of our goals. Luckily he managed to bag himself a goal before he jetted off on holiday with a lovely effort stroked along the ground from the right hand side of the penalty area into the bottom left corner of the goal.
Now this is where I get really excited as I managed not only to score my first ever competitive goal, but to score two of the bastards.
The first came when a lovely through ball was played for me to run free on goal which I took with my weaker left foot and shot into the bottom right corner of the goal and squirmed under the falling goalkeeper. Frankly I was a bit confused the I'd actually managed to put the ball into the net, but as I'd managed earlier to volley onto the bar and also shank a 1 yard shot wide I guess it was just my lucky day.
I decided to celebrate but going totally fucking nuts and running into whoever got to me fist. Unluckily this was Dan (co-founder) Burgess who in his excitement decided it would be a wonderful idea to take me out in a Rugby style challenge and subsequently give me a dead leg much to the amusement of the 4 people that were watching.
My second was putting the finishing touch on a stunning piece of team play which must have consisted of about 15 passes including one-twos, back heels and eventually a stunning through ball from Phil which put me one on one with the goalkeeper and I luckily managed to keep my cool and slot the ball in with my right foot into the net at the near post.
The goal was special not only because the least talented player in the whole squad managed to put it into the goal but the fact that is was the most stunning piece of passing build up we'd managed to create.
Aside from the goals everyone played wonderfully;
Nik made a few wonderful saves, most notable of which was a close range free-kick that looked destined to go in which he managed to punch away and keep his clean sheet.
Callum and Waggy won absolutely everything and kept us solid at the back and played mostly as a back two as the full backs and midfield advanced.
Phil had a great game as captain and as well as scoring two goals he managed to slow the game down when the rest of the team were getting over-excited.
Jon was solid down the left and played some wonderful balls into the midfield and through for Nobbsy to chase.
Wilko had another stunning game dropping into the midfield and creating chances all over the place.
Birthday-boy Stubbo (pictured) had a solid debut and although he came off after 70 minutes he made some wonderful moves, in particular when he switched the play with wonderful accuracy.
James Davies came on for the final 20 and played well on the right side making some nice runs into the box. I've saved the best for last though as also making his debut was Sam Jacobson who earned himself the Man of the Match award by being an absolute fucking menace and Right Back.
As well as keeping it solid defensively he was making fantastic runs for all of the 90 minutes and frequently built play from the back, cutting the ball inside or taking it on himself.
The most exciting aspect of the game was that we were able to score freely from midfield. Before the start of the season I was not worried about our lack of dedicated strikers (none!) as I believed we had the firepower in midfield to cause enough problems and luckily I've been proved right as a staggering 9 of our 11 goals have been scored by players in midfield positions.
Although the quality of the opposition was poor we also have to remember that the team today was not featuring Kev, Ralph and the yet to play Matt (Roberts) and James (Guppy) who are in my opinion some of the most talented players in the squad and I genuinely feel sorry for whoever plays us the week that all 14 first-team players are available.
HHAFC x
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