Poly 9s celebrated their first cup progress of recent seasons and
their second success over Civil Service in 15 days with a 4-2 win
at Chiswick.
Faced with the need to change strips we hoped that the sides
traditional luck in green would transfer to the brand spanking new
white set that was getting its first wear by any Poly side.
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So which boot
colour best matches the new
kit?
back row (left to
right)
Alan McDermott, Danny
Louki, Tomas Sponiar, Ryan Lamb, Dan Buckland,
Chris Moran, Mansingh Gujadhur, Petr Holecek, Jan
Suchma.
front
Andy Hutchings, Tom
Watkins, Craig Skelton, Neal Gordon, Rob Holmes
Reed.
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With the wind and the traditional Chiswick autumn sun looking like
they would play a major role in the proceedings, CS kicked off
against the elements and it wasn't long before Poly
threatened. First Moran had an opening smothered by the CS
keeper with less than two minutes played, then he was involved
again as Poly took an early lead, nodding a header through for Grim
Reaper Tom to lob the outcoming keeper. Within another minute
we could have put ourselves in complete control as Rob then set up
Chris for a close range finish that was unfortunately, though quite
correctly, ruled out for offside.
Then nature made one if its stranger interventions.
The CS keeper, attempting to pull the ball out of the trees at the
back of his goal, was dealt a freak blow by a swinging branch and
sustained a cut to the head which, after several minutes of
treatment, forced him to withdraw from the proceedings.
The loss of their keeper must have seemed catastrophic to the
visitors, but the long interruption did serve to break the spell of
Poly domination and the resumption was uneventful until midway
through the half when Craig fizzed a shot just outside the post
from long range. After that a great long ball up the wing
from Andy was seized on by Chris, whose fine low cross begged in
vain for a simple touch to convert it into a goal.
With half an hour on the clock, CS managed their first
significant raid. Giggsy broke it up with a fine sliding
tackle to prevent a shot from within the D, but it was an important
reminder that we needed to make more of the natural advantages we
held in the first half. Thankfully we did heeded it as Rob
found space on the right and sent in a low cross which Tom
converted with a controlled side foot past the stand-in
keeper. As half time approached we made it three as Rob sent
in a fine looping centre for Chris to nod home from close
range.
It must have looked pretty bleak for the CS at that point, three
down, with a stand-in goalie, another playing limping around and no
subs left to field. They didn't seem to dwell on in though as
they pulled a goal back by seemingly marching almost unmolested
straight through the Poly half straight from the restart - so
direct that the low finish nutmegged the exposed Dan.
Unnerved, we almost suffered a complete disaster as Dan then
slipped when clearing a back-pass. But we survived and almost
restored the advantage in the long injury-time as Rob was denied as
he tried to convert a cross, then went on a great run but asked too
much of Chris with the final ball.
HT Poly 3-1 CS.
The power of the elements meant the game was still wide open and
the Poly set their target to be to contain the opposition.
This was mostly achieved early on though Dan was called on to
rescue us on one occasion after some scrappy defending. We
replaced the ailing Giggsy with Petr at the back, pushing Mansingh
into the midfield enforcer role where he put his experience to good
effect and a little while on we brought Jan in for the tiring Danny
(making his first competitive start of the season after injury...
and wanting to get to Stamford Bridge for the evening ko!).
As the half progressed though, CS started to make more of the
advantages the elements offered them, whilst our own efforts became
more elaborate than the game and the conditions might have
demanded, so it wasn't surprising when they pulled back to 3-2 with
fifteen minutes left to play, turning home a hard cross from close
range. The pressure had been building and now reached boiling
point. Into the fray came Tom Glavey for his first game
back after a long absence and he was on hand to turn away an evil
looking centre into the danger zone. Undeterred, red shirts
piled forward sending more long balls into the Poly box and giving
us much to think about with throw-ins and corners. Thankfully
though we held our nerve and as 90 minutes approached we finally
counter attacked a through Rob, back on his preferred right
wing, and substitute Jan, whose shot was blocked. Moments
later though we attacked again, this time it was Chris, now playing
on the left who did the work and Jan again who broke through to
make no mistake and settle an absorbing tie once and for all.
Team
Dan Buckland
Neal Gordon (sub Tom Glavey)
Craig Skelton
Andy Hutchings
Mansingh Gujadhur
Danny Louki (sub Jan Suchma)
Ryan Lamb (sub Petr Holecek)
Tomas Sponiar
Rob Holmes Reed
Chris Moran
Tom Watkins
MOTM - lots of candidates had good spells in the game, honorable
mentions for the three lads up front who all got on the scoresheet
and Mansingh whose assurance and experience was
invaluable but I'm going to give this one to Craig, who
has been performing consistently well at left back all season and
was assured again today.