Sokretez vs CFC Shalford

Essex County Sunday Junior Cup 2nd Round
Today saw a bare eleven travel to a blustery Clacton to face our second round Essex Junior Cup fixture with high flying Sokretez FC. Having done a little home work on this team I was not looking forward to this game, it’s a long journey to Clacton and an even longer journey home when you get trounced. There current form of late has seen them scoring goals for fun having already scored a staggering 41 league goals in 7 games and I was wondering whether we were going to be another statistic with their impressive start.

A decent pitch some of my doubts and looking around the team we still had quality in every department its just never easy to enter a game knowing there isn’t anyone on the bench, So getting injured wasn’t an option is these circumstances.

The game started well, both teams getting so good touches on the ball to settle them into the tough game ahead. The Sokretez formation saw two of their midfield sitting deep in front of the back four which caused issues for CFC at first as it was difficult to pick them up without exposing the space in front of them thus causing unnecessary pressure on our own back three. CFC were playing a formation that is a little alien to them, the formation itself is self explanatory but it needs the players in the positions to be comfortable with what they are doing and at times we looked a little un easy. 3-5-2 needs a lot of time spent in training working on also the fitness to carry out the unique rolls the wing backs carry out. This caused a few dramas for CFC as Bensley fell in to the trap of sitting too deep at times allowing the right winger to ‘cheat’ and sit in a forward position rather than being worked hard the other way.

Slowly but surely the team settled into the role, Bensley started to give his opponent a bit of a game and stepped into forward mode and showed his attacking ability by hitting the by-line and putting some first class crosses into the box that should have been finished off. Leon Roberts and Marvis Cudjoe provided good movement upfront but at times they were a little isolated due to the midfield sitting deep and protecting the defensive line.

With around a quarter of the match played, Lewis Short in his first appearance for the first team this season won a header in the centre circle that found the space for Sherwin to play a sweet defence splitting pass which LEON ROBERTS latched onto and coolly slotted past the advancing keeper.

Sokretez were technically very good and showed on numerous occasions by playing the early ball and leaving the CFC players a little on their heels, they produced some great movement and at times turned CFC inside out with their skilful ball control but there finishing was sadly lacking, if they had scored one I believe there would have surely been an onslaught, although CFC were leading they still looked a little fragile.

Half Time: Sokretez 0 CFC Shalford 1

In previous games the half time team talk generally went in one ear and out the other, on numerous occasions it has been discussed that the first ten minutes of the re start is really important, the need to prevent the opposition scoring generally fell on deaf ears and allowing them to get there tails up always seemed to form part of the game. This week however was different we seemed to grow some balls and instead of bending over a assuming the position we seemed to get a little harder in the tackle and believed we deserved this lead. This had an affect that rippled through the team; Mead entered the game and with his firm tackling completely shut down the left midfield threat that was growing in confidence throughout the first half. Some hard tackling through the entire midfield seemed to whither the Sokretez front guard they are clearly good technical team however appear not to be used to a physical game.

The minuets ticked by and the chances that Sokretez made were getting less and less, CFC were confidently stifling any positive play, they had grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and wouldn’t let go, Mark Johnson in goal for the first time in a few years was a great bonus any aerial threat in the box was confidently plucked from the sky. It wasn’t without casualties though, Cudjoe picked up a hamstring injury and due to not having any subs had to play through, position juggling added a new dimension again, Bensley replacing Marvis upfront saw both players up their game again.

With minutes remaining CFC seemed to switch off and almost commit suicide by allowing the Sokretez forward to run through the defence and put himself one on one with Johnson who was reluctant to make his shot easy the advancing forward somehow dragged his shot wide, CFC had rode their luck but without doubt deserved it.

Full Time: Sokretez 0 CFC Shalford 1 This was a massive win for the Shalford boys and looking at the reaction of our hosts it was a real hammer blow to there reputation. The next round brings either Brightlingsea Regent Res or High Street Rangers to our back yard for a game of footy.