Sunday 15th November 2009
Corby Kingswood Swifts 0 South Rushden Gladiators 3

Gladiators swoop on the Swifts!

Team
Tom Porter
Alex Ferdinandez - Matt Fensome – Ross McMullan - Aaron Halliday
Scott Clampin - Nathan Doherty - Oliver Pendered – Danny Gallagher
Jack Lake - Reagan Betts
Sub: Kain Devonald

Our second round league cup game took us to Corby against a team from the top division. We started the game very brightly and as discussed before the game we attacked every ball and hustled them whenever they were in possession. After about 15 minutes we were presented with a penalty when the Swifts player decided to handle the ball from a cross, Matt stepped up and blasted it at the goalkeeper, who made the save. We kept up the pressure and we then had another opportunity when Matt powered the ball over. The determination and battling from Oliver, Scott, Danny and Nathan kept and maintained the pressure but we still went in at half time goalless.
The second half saw the Gladiators provide even more pressure and it was about 10 minutes into the half when a superbly taken corner by Nathan was firmly met by Matt who made no mistake this time and gave us the lead we certainly deserved. As always when we score, the boys confidence rises and it wasn’t long before a good move saw Oliver pass wide to Kain who played a first time ball into the box for Jack who controlled the ball and smashed it into the corner 2 nil.

Although we were in charge of the game the defence didn’t allow the Swifts to get near Tom’s goal, with Alex’s ferocious tackling, Ross & Matt’s dominance in the middle and Aaron steady on the left kept them out.  The attacking force of Jack and Reagan continued to press forward and were presented with a few half chances following their own determination to chase down lost causes.

The boys continued to attack with another great ball from Kain finding Reagan unmarked in the middle but he was just unable to find the net (another great move!!) The final 5 minutes saw plenty of goal mouth action with corner after corner, when another cross from Nathan although it didn’t find a Gladiator’s head the ball bounced in the area and Aaron was on hand to blast in for the 3rd goal.

A good all round performance from all the boys made it very difficult to select a man of the match today but Tony’s decision was that both Oliver and Scott just edged it. (Well Done)

We are back to County Cup action next week with Northampton O.N Chenecks Youth coming to face the Gladiators, let’s have the same again next week boys.

Well done boys you all deserved the victory today.

Ian