OAKWOOD 0 - 2 CHUFC
Goals: Kai Neil Gray, Alex Adejokun
I thought we got the job done against Oakwood without being anywhere near the same standard as we were on Saturday, but I guess that’s football. It was always going to be a different challenge with the trickier playing surface and an opponent who gets the ball forward quickly, so I was very pleased that we found a different way to win to keep the momentum we have at the moment.
We asked for an energetic start to compensate for the lacklustre opening 10 minutes in games of late and that was a definite improvement, although we lacked any quality at this point, we had a great chance to score in the opening minutes when Boe Fowler hit the post from a corner and it did set the tempo of the game in our favour.
I wasn’t happy with our attacking play at all. We lacked any real quality, giving the ball away too often and just not being very good. We were, though, defensively resolute and didn’t look in any real danger. We made the breakthrough with a long clearance upfield where Kai Neil Gray outmuscled the defender and cooly finished showing that sometimes at this level just turning the opponent's defence is the easiest way to create chances.
That did settle us and for the 10 minutes or so up to the break we were really good and scored a spectacular second thanks to a fine finish from Alex Adejokun. Without doubt, we had now found our rhythm and I didn’t really want the half-time whistle as we were enjoying our best spell of the game and playing some very good football.
The message at half time was to manage the game and I was very impressed that finally some of these messages hit home. We slowed the game restarts, obviously within the laws of the game and kept the ball well for passages of play that frustrated Oakwood. We had spoken at length about how a 2-0 win would represent a professional away performance and that we didn’t need to chase any further goals and that a patient approach would see us with further opportunities to extend our lead without leaving ourselves open and that’s what we got.
I felt we remained in control most of the time and those chances did come along but unfortunately, we couldn’t take them and so 2-0 it was. Having the luxury of a strong bench allowed us to make changes as and when we needed to, some of them were late on tactically to stop Oakwood from having any flow to their game and we saw the game out quite comfortably. As I say it wasn’t spectacular other than a very good 15-minute spell when we scored our 2 goals but it was solid and well managed and I was very pleased to get our third win on the bounce.
Our attention turns to the Surrey Premier Cup Friday night so a quick turn round, where I will change things up a bit to make full use of what is now a very good squad, in the hope that we can progress to the quarter-finals, then it's back to league action next Tuesday away at Billingshurst.
Gaffer Glynn Stephens
First Team Manager