MATCH SUMMARY : Yateley Leopards (05 December 2015)

HJ and GW out this week. Winds with high figures on the beaufort scale were clearly going to influence the game, with the gales force winds blowing directly down the pitch.

We'd agreed beforehand, that when playing with the wind we were going to hold the ball up and against the wind we were going to try and play behind their defenders.

Losing the toss, Phantoms braced themselves for the onslaught of wind assisted football!! After the first few minutes being stuck in our half, we managed to get our game going and started to turn the opposition. There were a couple of good chances that we nearly took. Yateley were looking dangerous around the edge of the box with shots, one particularly saved well by Joab. Unfortunately Yateley got a scrambled opener that we really should have dealt with. To the boys credit they carried on playing and after some very positive play, we received a penalty for some off the ball tackling. RD tucked the penalty away well, credit to him on getting back to penalty taking duties.

1-1 half time, which felt like a clear lead given the conditions.

Second half EH went striker to hold the ball up, something prior to today that we don't do very well and EH showed how it is done. Phantoms camped in Yateley's half with the odd break from Yateley. . Eventually a quality corner from JC was headed in by RD hitting the front post to put us in the lead. At this stage we needed a third goal to put the game away and ofcourse they did everything but score. Inside of the post, open goal, another post, 1 v1 keeper etc. There is little confidence in front of goal and we all waited for that sucker punch! Fortunately RD volleyed home with 5 minutes to go and we breathed a sigh of relief..Well done to Yateley in touch conditions and particular the second half keeper who was as good as I've seen at this level. .