Before this match I get an email that says 700 of the 900 people expected to show up at Cray Valley are traveling Brixton fans. Interesting… It’s our first mid-week game and first away game. Their roster is old with 8 non-Grey players whose average age is almost 32. All this considered, I’m feeling confident in this one.
Southern League Cup First Round
At Cray Valley Paper Mills, 16 August 2017 (almost exactly 10 km almost exactly due east of Brockwell Park)
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Johnstone,
Clark, Spearing, Parker,
Jones,
Cullen, McAdam, Martin,
Taylor,
Rae
Subs: Friend, Day,
Maguire, Carroll, Jefcoate, Pearson,
Donaldson, Smith,
Duckett,
Macey,
O'Donnell
Well, our streak continues. Our streak of not scoring from a free kick! Not a single one even through pre-season. We had two wasted opportunities and its nada-nada at half. I Calmly tell the team I’m not happy and up the Tempo and switch to Attacking. Rae and Taylor have multiple opportunities but they botch them. And of course the wasted free kicks continue.
At 60’ I swap out some player, notably Taylor and Rae for Macey and O’Donnell. Or so I thought so. I brought in Duckett instead of Macey and he promptly crosses to Martin, who get’s his first goal of the season. I correct my error and send Duckett to MR. In the 78’ Cray-Cray get a free kick about 25 yards out and can’t convert so on the counter O’Donnell runs the ball down to the byline and sends a slow, low cross to the far corner for an easy Macey clean up. I switch us to Control and then Defensive at 80’. Ninety seconds into extra time we get some more O’Donnell cross to Macey to absolutely shut the door on Crazy Valley.
POM: Ben O’Donnell (2 assists, 5 key passes, 4 chances created)
History was made in this match. Because of Maguire’s appearance, he now holds the record for the youngest player ever in this cup at 15 years and 48 days. (Because no real records were brought over in the database, these are false histories really.)
FA Cup Second Preliminary Round
vs. Whitley Bay, 19 August 2017
Formation: 4-4-2 Standard
Starting XI: Webb, Maguire, Day,
Carroll, Jefcoate, Pearson,
Barlow,
Smith, Duckett, Macey,
O’Donnell
Subs: Friend, Johnstone,
Clark, Spearing, Parker, Jones,
Thompson,
McAdam, Martin, Taylor,
Rae
Despite having plenty of goals off corners in the pre-season, we’ve yet to score one this season. This trend continues today. Nothing much happens until 26’ when a lovely smooth attack begins from a throw-in deep in our territory. Jefcoate lobs it forward to O’Donnell, who dribbles almost to the 18-yard box and then sends in another low cross to the near post where Macey beats his man and sends in a low shot to the left. Our captain is awesome! Nothing really happens until just after 71’ when Whitley get a goal off a corner. I switch to Attacking and two and a half minutes later a right-side thrown in to Pearson gets booted ahead to Rae on a breakaway. His shot hits the crossbar and ricochets right to a trailing Macey who doesn’t miss. I quickly change things to Control to try to close the match out. There are some butt-clenching moments especially when Macey fouls a guy in our end with 10 second left in extra time but the ensuing kick gets booted up-field and we win our first close match.
POM: Eddie Macey (2 goals)
I took another look at finances before and after the match. Seems that the fans are spending around £9 on the concessions; we’re making £11 when you add in the ticket prices. That is not sustainable. Prices better go up next season significantly. I guess this is what I get for setting Reputation to 1.
The Week Between
It’s FA Cup First Qualifying Round draw time! We get to host Tonbridge, who are two leagues above us and predicted to finish 7th out of 24 teams. Hopefully we don’t let them play like we did Whitley Bay.