Hadlow United Vrs Dormansland Reserves

14th November 2004 (WKSL)

With a few absentees Hadlow were down to a bare 11 at home to Dormansland. Hadlow had struggled to get to grips with Dormansland's wing-back formation in the earlier away game and hence changed their formation to 4-5-1 to attempt to equalise the numbers in central midfield.

From the off Hadlow were on the back foot. Dormansland were sending in many crosses and Hadlow rarely got out of their own half. Dormansland scored at 20 and 30 minutes forcing Hadlow to revert to a 4-4-2 formation. This gave Hadlow the chance to retain the ball further up the pitch and the rest of the half was a more even contest so hadlow felt that they still had a chance at 2-0 down at half-time.

Hadlow got one goal back when Webb capitalised on a defenders slip to score with his left foot and for 10 minutes Hadlow bombarded the Dormansland goal. A header from a corner by Phil Betts (??) went over the goal line but the referee failed to give the goal to Hadlow's frustration. A defence splitting ball by Bridges found Webb who got into the box, drew the keeper before squaring to Harvey whose shot was somehow cleared of the line by a defender. Shortly after Dormansland scored to make it 3-1 and Hadlow's heads went down. In the last 15 minutes Dormansland scored 4 more goals to finish 7-1 victors, 2 goals coming from left-wing crosses and back post headers. With Hadlow letting their frustrations get the better of them Excel was booked for dissent and Betts was lucky to not see red for taking down an attacker when the last man.

Team:

Kerton, Bridges, Walsh, , M. Betts, P. Betts, Excell, Harvey, Cook, Garside, Carlton (Wood), Webb (1)