Coleshill’s star striker scores 5 in a bruising match for Coventry. 3-0 down at half time Coventry rallied and come close, before losing out 7-4.
Coleshill started the game better and within 5 minutes scored with a shot from the left wing that Garry could only palm into his net. Coventry was still finding their feet and were made to work hard as Coleshill dominated possession, before Derek then opened his account with 2 strikes on goal. The first from a lucky bounce after a defender interception and the second by turning his man to fire low into the goal. This was a feature of the game throughout and although we changed defensively, it had little effect as Coleshill was still able to find Derek one on one with a defender. As the first half played on, Coventry did start to get a foothold in the game and got some looks on goal, with a screamer from Ken being saved at full stretch by their goalkeeper. Half time 3-0 to Coleshill.
Coventry made a further change and brought Steve on, which seemed to work almost immediately when a pass from Steve found Dave, whose shot was palmed across goal by their goalkeeper to the oncoming Kev who tucked the ball away. There were signs that Coleshill were starting to struggle and gave a team penalty away for too many running offences, that Ken scored from, hitting the ball high in to the corner of the net. 3-2 down it felt like a comeback was on. However, another set back from a long ball found Dereck who turned his marker and scored. Coventry then hit back with a goal from Dave after a great pass from Ken. Coventry had some more looks and could easily have scored a few more, but were either missing the target or they were being saved by their goalkeeper. Coleshill then scored again from another long ball, before Man of the Match Ken hit a screamer from the left side of the goal to bring us to within 1 goal again. However, straight from the kick off another long ball found their striker who scored his 5th and Coleshill’s 6th. Coventry was pressing, but again in the last seconds of the game they gave up a goal to an unmarked midfielder. Final score 7-4 to Coleshill.
Although we lost and I need to reflect on how the team played overall and my tactics for the game, particularly on how to counter their goal threat, we should nevertheless recognise that Coleshill played very well and it is a credit to them that they made it difficult for Coventry to play.
Thanks to Bryce for coming along to support the team.
65s Team: Garry Bench, Tony Malone, Lewis Gent, Kev Shannon, Pete Skelsey, Dave Marriott, Ken Badland and Stephen Allison.
65s Team Manager: Ray Lewis
Report by: Ray Lewis