9 Goal Thriller At School Road

<p>Coddenham welcomed Shotley to a cold and muddy School Road on Saturday afternoon.<p>We had Charlie Hunt back between the sticks, Estavao Lopez returned into the back 3 & Will Gibson started in the holding role, whilst Ali Gravett Curl returned from uni to slot in at LWB.<p>Alex Monteiro started up top in absence of Kyle Irvine.<p>Hunt, Skinner, Guite, Pearce, Lopez, A.Gravett-Curl, Gibson, P.Gravett-Curl, Saunderson-Copping, Holland & Monteiro.<p>Subs: De Melo, Whitefield & R.Mitchell.<p>Coddenham started the game attacking the church end, and were mostly soaking up pressure from the Shotley front line.<p>Shotley took the lead when K.Mandley slotted the ball home from the spot after Lopez had fouled him.<p>After the visitors taking the lead, the hosts came back into the game, and we seemed to get alot of joy down our right hand side through Max Skinner.<p>Eventually a Saunderson-Copping ball split the defence to find Max Skinner who sent the ball across the 6 yards box for Monteiro to tap in.<p>1-1.<p>The Cod Army grew in confidence after this and were making some good openings.<p>On 35 minutes Gibson made a cheeky chip over the Shotley defence, and Holland weaved away from Garnham to slot past Gladwell in the Shotley goal.<p>2-1.<p>Just before half time, Gibson was at it again splitting the defence and Holland raced away to make it 3 before half time.<p>3-1.<p>HT: 3-1The 2nd half was a different story, we knew Shotley would come out firing needing to win to keep their hopes alive of the Div 2 title.<p>Coddenham kept to there plan and kept battling away to try and force a 4th.<p>But Shotley managed to find a goal on 70 minutes when it was bundled over the line 3-2.<p>Shotley equalised on on 80 minutes when Hunt seemed to have been fouled, but thats not the point it was in and it was 3-3.<p>On 85 minutes the Cod Army retook the lead, and might well have thought we'd won the game, when De Melo found Saunderson-Copping who slotted it into the bottom corner from 20 yards.<p>4-3.<p>30 seconds later Shotley equalised through J.Mandley when the ball for him and he fired home.<p>4-4.<p>Deep into injury time, Shotley broke away, and K.Mandley put a ball on a plate for Adam Frost to bundle the ball home to take all 3pts.<p>Was a cracking game for the neutral, but it was a huge kick in the teeth for the Cod Army.<p>Surprisingly no bookings in this fixture that has a reputation of being a bit of banker for the FA.