Pieton Four Timer Seals Excellent Victory

<p> We welcomed a strong Easington Sports team to Ashdene Road for our last game until the new year. What followed was a cracking game with both teams playing some top quality passing football.

<p> The opening minutes saw the visitors enjoying most of the possesion so it was probably against the run of play when we opened the scoring after seven minutes. Zaz played an excellent ball out to Ben on the left who played another great ball to Charlie who produced a calm finish to slot the ball inside the far post. The goal filled us with confidence and four minutes later we doubled our lead. The move started with Matty, who I thought had his best game for us so far, passing to Ben who again played Charlie in. With the goalie advancing Charlie got to the ball first and clipped the ball over him and in. Mid-way through the half Easington had a big chance to half our lead when Jake slightly mis-timed a tackle which resulted in a penalty being awarded. George guessed right as he dived to his right to produce a great save.

<p> The remainder of the half saw both teams swapping attacks but our back four of Will, Jake, Jordan and in particular Joe produced some great defending. George added a few smart saves to this to ensure we got to the break with our two goal lead intact. The half also featured some great tracking back from Tom and Ben and Miguels usual trickery on the ball.

<p> The second half began with us being strangely off the pace as our work rate dropped off a bit. This combined with the visitors being much more fired up resulted in us being put under more pressure than we had been in the first half. Ten minutes into the half the pressure told as a weak shot somehow squirmed under George's body and in. Fifteen minutes later the scores were level as an Easington corner was headed home. This could easily have knocked the stuffing out of us but, to their huge credit, our boys responded superbly. Eight minutes later we regained the lead when, again, Zaz and Ben combined to set up Charlie who produced another calm finish to complete his hat-trick. We sealed the win with a minute to go. Ben received the ball on the half-way line wide on the left. He then produced a blistering run down the wing leaving defenders trailing. He was still at full speed when he reached the bye line and produced a brilliant cross right to the onrushing Charlie who produced a bullet header that no goalie was going to stop.

<p> Minutes later the final whistle blew and we had made it four League wins in a row to move us up to third in the league. So four goals for Charlie, four assists from Ben and some top quality and totally commited performances all over the pitch.

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<p>Happy Christmas guys