20th Oct 2007 - Nice one my Sunny

On Saturday we were back at our old hunting ground of Fleming Park in Eastleigh.  The mood in the dressing room was high and a big discussion started ..... on what number shirts people wanted !  The team had all of the usual suspects apart from Keith and Josh missing.  Ali joined us from a local club on a Bosman type ruling.

Hedge End started the game well and early on had a few chances but nothing came of them.  Eastleigh also had a few chances but both teams were resulting to long range shots.  Then disaster struck as Bernard was chasing back and his knee went again.  He was replaced by Pete.  Then 10 seconds later Eastleigh took the lead when a through ball got the better of everybody and their player tucked it in, although Andy got a touch to it he couldn't prevent them from scoring.  Then they had another great chance but Andy made a great save to pull it wide.

After some pressure from Hedge End we got a free kick on the left and Sunny stepped up to take it.  He floated it into the area and it went straight passed everybody and into the bottom right hand corner.  The first half ended 1-1.

In the second half both teams went for the kill.  Matt made some great runs down the right wing and Sunny down the left wing.  Andy was controlling the midfield and when Ali came on he made his mark very quickly and won the ball every time it entered the centre of the pitch.  Then after a run down the left wing Dave cut it in and although Ali completely missed it Matt was there to pick up the ball and score. 

Unfortunately after some great defending, and shortly after our goal, Mike was alleged to have handled the ball in the area and Eastleigh were awarded a penalty.  They took it and made it 2-2.

Then a long spell of playing the ball in the midfield and out wide occurred and not many chances were had, apart from an Andy M shot which went out for a throw in. All of a sudden Sunny went on a run passed a few players and then unleashed a shot right into the top of the net from way outside of the area.  It was one of those goals that the Eastleigh keeper just had to watch as it went like a bullet.

Hedge End thought that they had done enough to secure 3 points when in the dying seconds their central defender got the ball and smashed it,  it then sailed over everybody's heads and went into the top corner of the net.  There was nothing that Andy in goal could have done.  We were all gutted.

Verdict:  A very strong performance from Hedge End matched with a good debut from Ali meant that they probably deserved better in this fixture but overall a draw was a fair result.  If we can keep our team together for the rest of the season then we should easily pick up more points.