Cadnam United 1-2 Sholing Reserves
Scorers : Golding, Papadopoulos
Date : 4 August 2014 - Pre-season Friendly
Team : Brooks, Joseph, Fear, Roundell, Golding, Fon, Dove, D. Smith, Tollervey, M.Smith, New. Subs all used : Papadopoulos, Gibbs, Davis, Batty, Harvie.
We took another young reserve squad to Hampshire league Cadnam Utd, Hampshire cup finalists last season, on Monday including 16
year old keeper Jordan Brooks.
Following on from Saturdays 3-1 win at Yateley we quickly got into our passing game without quite having the cutting edge required. As the first half progressed Macaulie Smith and Terry New soon got on the same wavelength going forward creating numerous chances whilst repeatedly beating the Cadnam offside trap.
Young keeper Brooks was assured throughout both in his handling and shot stopping whilst his back four was solid throughout the game. Despitehaving the better of the first half the score remained goaless at half time. HT 0-0
Early in the second half Serge Fon and Dan Dove continued to get a grip on the midfield with excellent support in wide positions from Liam Golding and Alex Papadopoulos. It was no surprise that after a quite superb 15 pass move, without a Cadnam player touching the ball, Liam Golding slid home our first goal after 52 minutes.
Numerous chances continued to fall to New, Smith and Fon without conversion and a defensive mix up on 79 minutes led to a free kick on the edge of the area which Cadnam punished us for our slopiness by converting. Victory in a game which we played well in and had general control of the match, particularly in midfield, looked to have slipped away from us until speedy greek winger Alex Papadopoulos ran onto an excellent pass from Macaully Smith and neatly finished on 84 minutes to give the young side a deserved win against a strong and well organised Cadnam team. FT 1-2
Our neat passing football was a highlight on the night from a team who in many cases had not played together before along with the performance of keeper Brooks.
Our pre-season programme is now gaining momentum as is the understanding of the team and quality of the football. We now move onto our 5th pre-season friendly on Wednesday night at Fareham Town, where we expect another tough game, followed by further friendlies to finish our pre-season games at Laverstock , Poole Town and Hythe and Dibden before our first league game on August 20th v Winchester City.
Report by Mark Stupple