Squad:

 

Glenn GK

Matt GK

Dave Captain

Jason

Darren

Ada

Ian

Phil

Nick

Michael

Simon – Assistant Manager

 

This was BayCity’s second match of the new season which saw us taking on the current league champions.

 

With a few key players missing, BayCity was still able to put out a relatively strong squad with Glenn, Dave, Jason, Darren, Ian, Ada and Phil starting off.

 

Despite the rain and a different surface, BayCity started off showing that we had something to prove and were soon troubling Herne Bay’s midfield and defence with some crisp one touch football and several through balls from Dave, which allowed Phil to have several chances on goal but he just couldn’t quite hit the target. Ian and Darren also came close to scoring but didn’t manage to trouble their keeper.

 

With BayCity constantly pressuring Herne Bay, the home team were at sixes and sevens and unable to trouble our defence. Despite Herne Bay getting a few freekicks, BayCity’s defence stood strong and closed down any threat that could offer. Fifteen minutes into the first half saw Jason take a nasty knock and had to hobble off. With Phil dropping back and Michael on to take over from Phil, BayCity still piled on the pressure and Michael soon fired in a shot which just went over the bar.

 

An extremely confident first half from BayCity that could have seen us score four or five goals but we just couldn’t hit the target.

 

With the second half underway Herne Bay started to pile on the pressure which saw BayCity being pinned back for a while, but like the first half,  BayCity were able to prevent them from scoring through some strong defensive play and a couple of good saves from Glenn. Despite the Herne Bay pressure, Bay City were still able to break on the counterattack which saw Michael getting through their defence from a through ball from Phil but was unable to get past the Herne Bay Keeper.

 

With Jason being able to come back on Simon reverted to the original starting formation and BayCity continued to keep the home team from mounting any serious attacks. With only two minutes to go BayCity were awarded a penalty for a fourth running offence by Herne Bay.  With no pressure whatsoever it was Phil’s task to seal the game from the spot which he did as cool as you like.  One Nil up and Darren then had to come off with an injury which allowed Nick to make his debut.

 

With just seconds to go Herne Bay threw everything at us which led to a tangle of legs from both teams on the edge of BayCity’s box which saw the ball going loose inside the box followed by a Herne Bay player’s foot. Despite this, the referee decided that BayCity had prevented a scoring opportunity and awarded a penalty kick. Despite Glenn going the right way for the penalty he couldn’t keep the ball out.

 

One all final score!

 

With BayCity feeling slightly hard done by we showed that we are more than capable of challenging for the league title this season and that we walked away knowing that this was probably our best team performance to date with everyone doing their bit.  In addition we showed some great discipline with only one running offence in the whole game.

 

Man of the match has to go to Phil who showed that he is a real trooper and that he was able to keep his nerve when needed.

 

Big thanks also go to Simon who managed the team so well.