Woo Hoo....

<p>The Vale finally got their first league win of the season, with a fairly emphatic 5-1 win over lowly Queens Head. &nbsp;With a quite nicely balanced side out, and with Silk back to marshal the defence, the Vale started brightly and instantly began creating chances. &nbsp;We squandered a few, but took the lead when Kie knocked the ball across goal, a defender got a slight touch but the ball fell to Young Sam, who took a while but eventually knocked the ball past the keeper. &nbsp;Sam got the second goal of the game as he played Jim in down the channel who played the ball back across to Sam, who again finished well. &nbsp;2-0 up and cruising so inevitably the Vale got sloppy and allowed Queens Head back in the game. &nbsp;The passing became particularly poor as people were under/over hitting everything for a 10 minute period and the ball bounced all over the place. &nbsp;It was during this section of the game that Queens Head equalised. A ball out wide to their right hand side was then played in and missed by several defenders...or possibly even flicked on by one of our defenders!...allowing a player to get to the ball at the back post where he knocked it past Bomo. &nbsp;We wobbled a little bit more, but to be fair slowly shook it off as we began passing to each other a bit more. &nbsp;We increased our lead before halftime, as Gaylo surged forward (fairly slowly mind!) and played in Luke on the edge of the box. &nbsp;Lukey doesn't miss from there, and dispatched it past the keeper....3-1. &nbsp;That's how it stayed till halftime.

<p>At halftime the manager rallied his troops, with as usual no-one listening to him, and the boys were sent out being asked to do the simple stuff better as if we did there was a great chance of getting more goals and killing off the game. &nbsp;We played well at the start of the second half and moved the ball around much better than before. &nbsp;There were still some basic errors in our play, but enough good stuff to keep the team clicking along. &nbsp;We created a load more chances, but poor finishing or poor decision making meant we couldn't get the game killed off. &nbsp;Subs were made, with Jim, Kie and Sam making way for Dirky, Cookie and Gyla. &nbsp;We finally got the 4th that ended any hope of them getting back in the game as Luke got the ball, beat a man, drove into the box and proved himself to be a lovely young lad by not tapping it in for his second and instead squared it for Dirky who couldn't miss....although he had missed a similar one slightly earlier! &nbsp;There was time for one more goal, and undoubtebly the goal of the game, as Gaylo won a header (Shocking I know!) and played the ball to Jase who was just inside the Queens Head half...he looked up and smacked it over the keeper with a perfectly judged lob. &nbsp;The game finished 5-1. with the vale fully deserving the win.

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<p>It's fair to say that Queens Head were lacking a bit of confidence, and we played well enough to deserve the win, but we have to still improve the simple act of keeping possession, because against a better side we would have become unstuck. &nbsp;It'd also help a bit if we could take our chances a bit better lads!!! &nbsp;But I'm not going to moan too much as we've been dying for a win, and everybody worked hard and played well. &nbsp;No-one stood out massively (as the ratings showed) but this was a proper team performance, where everybody did their jobs well.

<p>Despite the win I still intend to rotate the side for next weeks game....

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<p>Misc notes:

<p>Gaylo and Silk went up for a header together (and with no attacker around) and Gaylo won it!

<p>Luke got slapped by an opponent again!

<p>The manager...ie me (who is a very nice man...and also a bit of an idiot) spent a bloody fortune buying the entire team a pint for getting their first win....please remember this when I rotate you out of the side one week and you want to have a moan at me!