| Match Report |
After last weekends double header of an excellent performance over Stafford followed by an attritional win over Newport, Telford 4ths travelled to Stone for an ungodly 5pm pushback this week. With the sun setting just before the start, the numerous broken floodlights causing big pools of darkness in the middle of the pitch and a strong freezing wind we thought it was going to be another tough game on the cards.
The focus for the 4ths this year has been playing a quality possession game with slick and clinical passing to get around the back of defences. Last Saturday saw what was possible when we did that and this week we took it to the next level.
Telford dominated in possession right from the off and in next to no time at all were 3-0 up thanks to some outstanding "pass and move" goals.
Stone pulled a disappointing goal back with a somewhat lifted ball into the circle to be neatly slotted in past Bradley.
Not to be deterred, Telford simply went back to playing the dominant possession and passing game and just kept racking up the goals. Even the much maligned penalty corner attack seemed to work well with the slightly slower Stone defenders offering a few more seconds control at the top of the circle.
With a 9-1 half time lead there was a potential for everyone to get a bit "route one" and to lose the shape and structure that had been the plan for this week. However, being well marshalled by Scott, Kieran and Chris Cousins, the potent attack kept their shape and kept piling the pressure on.
Despite the dominance that Telford had throughout we did only manage to add 4 goals to the half time tally but a tired looking Stone side barely troubled the other end.
When the game finally ended, Roger had bagged 4, new signing Stewart with 4 of his own, Kieran scoring for the first time in years, and like the proverbial buses, a second very soon after, Josh Carr-Yetzes rounding off a strong game up front with 2 and Scotty rolling back the years to finish the tally off.
13-1 final score.
It would have been easier to pick players who weren't up for Man of the Match than shortlist those who deserved it. Ultimately for his phenomenal 7 assists and outstanding build up play down the right side of midfield, Man of the Match was Luke Oldham.
Honourable mentions to Josh Sykes who played exceptionally well as a last minute Covid call up, Kieran Mountford for scoring for the first time in years and to Stewart Riddle for impressing on debut.
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