Easton Monday 95 vs Nailsea Vets 50s

Match Reports

Best grass pitch we’ve played on in quite a while so it deserved to have top-quality football played on it. That came in patches in a well-fought game between two reasonably even teams although Easton’s quality on the ball and accurate long-range passing gave them the edge.

Easton started the brighter and it was 15 minutes before Nailsea began to find some rhythm and share some controlled periods of play. Easton calved out a few chances, but Nailsea took the lead after half an hour. Lee Cogan picked up the ball on the left-hand edge of the penalty area and fired a shot low into the left side of the goal. Easton responded by pressing high up the pitch and made their dominant possession pay off with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes of the first half.

Both teams squandered chances in the second half and the score remained unchanged. Lee McGreevy kept Nailsea in the game with a great save as Easton were through 1 on 1 and in the last seconds Nailsea had a great chance to level but fired over from close range.

Nailsea felt they did enough for a point but Easton probably felt they deserved the win on the balance of play and the number of chances that went begging.

Played in an excellent spirit with no incidents to report which is also a testament to a very good referee who was keen to play the advantage whenever he could and bring a level of good humour to the proceedings.

THE ‘MONDAY POST’ MATCH REPORT

For the second game in a row Monday were able to field another strong squad as the teams arrived at the pristine grass pitch on a cold but crisp Sunday morning. However, the 95ers started poorly, unable to keep hold of the ball allowing Nailsea to put them under pressure from the off and finding a lot of space. Monday then began to pass the ball around nicely without really bothering the Nailsea keeper.

A couple of wayward passes from Bri, and then Terry gave Nailsea an opportunity that they finished very nicely into the bottom corner to make it 1-0 to the visitors. As Bri observed… “This served as the kick up the backside the Monday needed, this and the introduction of Dr Rob to the wing saw chances starting to be made.”

Monday rotated the team and started the second half on the front foot. Sheri made a welcome return from injury and was quickly put clean through with only the keeper to beat, the crowd held its breath, but the Nailsea keeper saved his shot. The Blues needed the 3rd goal to settle the nerves and the game. This period saw numerous Monday chances to kill the game but contrived to fail to provide finishing to match their good build up play.

It was definitely not one-way traffic though. Nailsea have decent footballers throughout the team and caused problems with Monday keeper Sir Lee coming to the rescue a few times with some quality keeping, twice tipping the ball over the bar.

With 10 minutes to go Colonel came on for Sheri and had a golden chance to seal it with his first touch after a defensive slip saw him clean through with just the keeper to beat, as he explained to the press conference after the match… “I took a touch to set up the shot, which I mentally lined up for the top left corner only to see the Nailsea keeper pull off another fine save.” This observation of events was somewhat contradicted by Stu Charlton who told reporters… “Colonel just passed it back to the keeper!”…something Stu knows all about.

The game was becoming stretched as Nailsea piled players forward for the equaliser and missed an open goal from a break.

The 95ers did likewise when Duds put Morgs clean through, with only the keeper to beat his shot flew over the bar landing in Row Z when he had loads of time, space and Rob and Colonel screaming for him to square the ball.

Monday dropped deeper and deeper allowing Nailsea to pile on the pressure resulting in a couple of nervy free kicks and half chances. But the 95ers hung on for a big 3 points.

Sheri summed up the game at his press conference… “We weren’t at our best but a win is a win and 3 points. Overall, a proper competitive and enjoyable 50’s game played in the right spirit.”

The sentiment was echoed by Alex telling reporters… “Overall, a decent opposition that gave us a fair, Corinthian game. Could’ve been an horrendously arduous game if it wasn’t for the great pitch and referee.”

MOM: Yinka for overall display with Dr Rob not far behind and Morgs 3rd for his two well taken goals.