Sunday March 7th, League Cup Quarter Final. Won 0-4
A fantastic performance against a first division side saw us move in the semi finals of League cup for the first time since we began 11 a side football.
Right from the start we took the game to Pewsham and had a number of chances to get an early lead but the ball just would fall for us. Midway through the first half Brad settled the nerves will a well taken goal and despite Pewsham coming back at us we held firm and went into half time 1-0 up.
Pewsham really went for it in the early part of the second half but we weathered the storm and Joel put us 2-0 up on a counter attack. At this point Pewsham’s heads began to drop and we picked up the pace again and Lay scored a good goal to put us 3-0 up and cruising.
Brad & Mick were causing all sorts of trouble for the Pewsham defence and it wasn’t long before Mick went on a run only to be brought down in the penalty box. Mick converted the penalty to make it 4-0.
Sunday 21st Feb. Away League match against Highworth J. won 2-11
The 11-2 score line doesn’t reflect how hard Highworth pushed us in the first half. Highworth started the better and their midfield gave us a torrid time, it wasn’t long before they took advantage and scored. Last season this would have been when our heads went down and we would have folded, but this season we are much stronger mentally and slowly worked our way back into the match. All of the boys hard work paid off when Brad, who had a fantastic game, pulled one goal back and scored another to put us 2-1 up at half time.
The second half saw us get off to a flying start with Brad scoring his 3rd after a couple of minutes. Then the floodgates opened and every time we went on the attack we looked like scoring goals from Joel, Mick, 2 wonderful goal poaches from Jordon and a hat trick from JP. Its worth mentioning that JP, who has been playing since he was 5, has never scored in a competitive match so his hat trick was something special.
Highworth never gave up and scored a consolation 2nd goal at the end to make the final score 11-2
Sunday 14th Feb. League Match away to Cricklade 1-1
A good result against a very good and determined team. This was always going to be a test for the boys and they battled well.
Playing up hill in the first half we were often on the back foot but the defence held out and we were relying on breakaways to get into the Cricklade half. Lay managed to loose his marker a couple of times but his chances came to nothing, then he picked up the ball on the half way line beat 4 or 5 players and put a perfect ball through to Mick to score.
Shortly after we had a couple of import decisions go against us including an off side call when Brad was clear through on goal.
The second half saw more of the same but we couldn’t take full advantage of the slope. Mick Brad and Joel all had chances but nothing would fall for them. Crickalde were pushing us further and further back and eventually broke our defence for the equalizer. The boys fought back with Mick going close on a couple of occasions and Brad hitting the bar.
For the last 10 minutes we had our backs to the wall but the defence held strong and the game finished 1-1
Sunday 7th Feb. Home League match against Avonvale. Won 4-0
Second match in two days and another great result, against a difficult side, to put us top of the table.
Once again we faced a midfield battle but Peter, Callum & JT worked incredibly hard to give Brad & Mick every opportunity to go for goal. Early in the half Brad played in Mick for the first goal and midway through the half Mick returned the favour to allow Brad to put us two up.
In between Avonvale had caused us quite a few problems but Pete in goal came to our rescue again.
The second half saw more of the same with Avonvale been very solid in midfield but our back for holding on strongly. Then came the goal / cross of the match when Brad pickup the ball on the right wing beat a defender and hit a high ball into the box which looped over the keeper and gave us a 3-0 lead. This was followed but a period of continuous pressure by Shaw which finally paid off when Avonvale cleared an attack straight to Joel who hit a sweet shot into the net to make the final score 4-0
Saturday 6th Feb. League Cup Match against South Cerney. Won 2-0
After 4 or 5 previous attempts this match finally went ahead and the Shaw boys played really well to secure a 2-0 win and progress into the quarter finals.
The match started well with Tom & Peter working well in midfield and Arnas and Joel working hard down the wings. We created a number of chances but just couldn’t get the first goal and the South Cerney keeper kept them in the game more than once. Finally Peter, Mick, Brad and Arnas combined well and Arnas slotted away his first goal of the season.
South Cerney weren’t making it easy for us and a number of time Pete came to our rescue. Up front Mick and Brad were working their socks off, Mick had at least 4 opportunities to extend our lead but hit the post and found the Cerney keeper on top form. 1-0 at half time.
The second half was much the same with both teams playing really well. Shaw then won a corner which Peter swung in, it hit a South Cerney players' head, then a defenders knee and crept over the line to make the score 2-0 and see the boys into the next round
Sunday 24th January, League match away to Eldene Rangers. Won 1-5
After a six week delay we finally get back to playing football and ran out 1-5 winners against a much improved Eldene Rangers.
The match started very quickly and we were on the attack from the start and it wasn’t long before a well taken goal from Mick put us 1-0 up. Twenty minutes in and Mick’s game is over with an injured leg. With Jordan replacing Mick upfront we continued to press and five minutes before half time Brad hit an awesome shot from well outside the box straight into the top corner to give the team a 2-0 lead at half time.
Injuries played a major part in the second half with Matt, Arnas, Chris and Peter all having to come off at some time. However the changes to the team didn’t deter us and the second half saw Jordon get a cracking goal on his debut, Joel score a goal of equal quality to Brad’s and Lay score a good headed goal.
Towards the end of the game the injuries and our lack of fitness began to tell and Eldene worked a good move down the right and scored their consolation goal
Sunday 13th December. Home league match lost 1-2 to FC Abbeymeads
This was our first match for 5 weeks and it showed as we never really got going until the second half. But take nothing away from Abbeymeads they capitalised on our slow start and went one up with less than 5 minutes gone.
The boys battled hard throughout the first half and were closing down Abbeymeads well but we just couldn’t get going up front and our chances were few and far between.
We started the second half better and began to take the game to Abbeymeads but still couldn’t get the equaliser. Then Abbeymeads broke away and scored a good goal, 0-2 down.
We still pushed forward and finally Mick found himself one on one with the keeper and he slotted in the goal, 1-2 and some hope. We continued to make all the running and put the Abbeymeads keeper under pressure with shots from Pete, Mick, Brad and Troy but it was not to be our day and Abbeymeads ran out 1-2 winners
Sunday 8th November. Home league match Vs Bassett Rangers. Won 7-0
A good performance and a great result to take us to the top of the table for the first time this season.
Bassett Rangers started really well and immediately put us under pressure, we suffered a few early scares but Mick soon calmed the nerves will a well taken poacher’s goal. Bassett Rangers continued to cause our back four problems but once again our front two were magnificent and Mick got a second, Joel got a rebound and Brad slotted one home from close range (although it looked like an own goal to most of us we’ll give Brad the benefit of the doubt). 4-0 at half time
Bassett Rangers didn’t give up and it took us 20 minutes into the second half to get back on top. The match was put beyond doubt with Brad getting two more goals and Lay getting another.
7-0 didn’t flatter us but Bassett Rangers are a good footballing side and they never made it easy for us
Sunday 18th October, League match away to Tetbury town. Won 2-3
Our worst performance of the season so far. We started very casually and Tetbury immediately took the game to us. With a revised back four we seemed to loose our stability and Tetbury constantly played the through ball which put us under pressure.
20 minutes in and the inevitable happened, Tetbury caught the defence square, slotted a through ball onto their centre forward who found himself one on one with Pete and Tetbury were 1-0 up. At last we seemed to wake up and started to take the game to the opposition. Chris won a great ball in midfield and set Brad up brilliantly to get us back on track. 1-1 at half time
The second half saw us pick up the pace and start to put the Tetbury goal under pressure but then another good attack from Tetbury saw our defence crumble and we found ourselves 2-1 down. However rather than letting our heads drop we pick ourselves up and went back on the attack. It wasn’t long before Mick and Brads pace were beginning to tell and Brad latched onto a through ball to get us back to 2-2. This was quickly followed by another goal from Mick to finally give us a 3-2 lead.
With Tetbury coming back into the game we suffered a few tense moments in the last 5 minutes but hung on to win the 3 points