A very good game of football.

After Saturdays rain, it was a pleasant surprise to see the sun on Sunday lunchtime.
Our guests in the county cup round of 32 were Just Sports FC from Brent. A soccer school who ply their trade in the first division of the Harrow youth league. An in form side who had won their previous 5 games, 4 of which were in the cup, and a league game where they toppled the top team in their division.

After a perfectly observed 2 minutes silence the game was about to begin when Luca was ruled out with a late injury.
A change in formation and personnel isn't really what you need with the game about to start but our boys are versatile and intelligent so I wasn't concerned about the changes.

The game got underway and instantly you could see that these boys from Brent were a really good technical side. Passing and moving for fun. It took some time to get to grips with them. When a team play faster than you can react its never going to be easy, and it wasn't.
Fortunately we do understand how to defend, and slowly we came to terms with their brand of football. In fact in a half where we were generally chasing shadows we didn't really concede too many chances, and as the half wore on we grew in confidence.

0n 25 minutes we conceded a goal which they had worked hard for but it wasn't a goal of great quality, however we'd been worked hard and you couldn't argue that they didn't deserve it. It did however provoke a response, and we were level through Alfie very shortly after conceding.

The half ended, with honours even but there was some work to be done if we were to change the shape of this game.

A new formation was discussed and some not so subtle changes in attitude were agreed, off we went, and promptly conceded again, this time tho it wasn't so deserved as poorly defended.

Kitchen sink time, hit or hope, 2 or 3 changes were made and we decided to go for it. Hard work, determination and no fear of losing were applied and it paid off. Goals from Asa x 2 and Nassim wrapping things up.

I have to say regardless of the result, this was an enjoyable game. Even if wed lost I'd have been very happy with the attitude to try different things and give a different type of performance. When you play decent teams you often have to find another solution to the problems they create.

Well done boys, you found a way.