So the league has finally
started – new rules, old rules, under head height, over head height, will they,
won’t they, Div 1, Div 2 - who cares!? BC2 became the 3rd BC team
this season to kick off a league game (a proud day indeed as club’s expansion
plans continues to gather momentum)
The Big Question - would the
endless training sessions, and no break over the summer for the BC boys, pay
dividends? Well, in a word – YES! BC2 beat Athletico Shenley in the season
opener 1-0 and maintained the club’s unbeaten start to the season
BC2 lined up with Richy A in
goal, new defensive partnering of Rob and Rolfie, Rogers and Ben playing side by
side in midfield with Sean “the legs” De Fraine up top!
Bunkies started slowly with
short spells of possession without creating any real opportunities on goal.
Athletico passed the ball around well and were very difficult to break down,
although early on they also didn’t create much in the final third.
Further into the first half a
few chances started to open up, with Sean finding the Athletico keeper in good
form on more than one occasion. Some great play off the boards left Rogers in
front of an open goal whose first time hit found the arms of the recovering
keeper at the near post! Athletico found it hard to break down the BC defence
and due to some good shutting down and tackling by Rolfie, Rob and Ben meant
Shenley had to resort to long range strikes none of which troubled Rich.
As the game went into the second
half – still 0-0 – Bunkies midfield sat deeper and deeper leaving Sean isolated
when the ball did go forward. The game became a battle of keepers with Richy and
the Athletico keeper (Craig I think his name was!) trying to out do each other.
My vote – Richy - he made 3 or 4 excellent saves – most of which were one on
one. As well as Rogers “sitter” Sean and Danny(2nd half sub for Ben)
also spurned chances that on another night they would have taken
Just as we hoped to hold on for the clean sheet and 1
point, following some good defensive play and a pass out of the back, Rogers cut
in from the right wing and shot left footed across the keeper to the far post.
The keeper got a hand to it but couldn’t keep the effort out. The defence –
including Danny – held out to keep all 3 points and start with a clean sheet. It
was great to see BC2 grind out a winning start to the season
The Managers final words on the matter – “It was a great
defensive team performance (credit to Richy, Rob and Rolfie in particular) and a
good winning start to the new season. We need to build on this result and as
well as make it difficult for other teams to break us down attack in numbers to
create more chances at the other end”
Captain Rogers Man of the Match: Richy A for keeping
clean sheet in opening game and making at least 3 x one on one saves
