Men's 3rds vs Leamington, 22/02/2009

On Sunday the men's 3rd team travelled to Leamington for a rearranged match due to snow on the 7th February. Despite the match being held on a Sunday we were fortunate to go to the match with 13 players. With the memory of the 2-5 loss at home to Leamington early in the season, and having lead 2-0 at half time, Derby knew that this match would not be easy.

At the beginning of the match Leamington put pressure on the Derby defence. But Derby were quick to neutralise this attack by effective man marking, and once Derby got possession and started breaking into the oppositions half Leamington looked to be struggling. Often when Leamington did get the ball back they struggled to get the ball out of their own half due to the pressure from the Derby attack. Despite the pressure from Derby, no goals were scored through open play. The first goal scored was by Paul Neilson through a well stuck shot in our first short corner. Not long later in only our second short corner a well worked ball was tapped into the goal by Dave Green.

In the second half Leamington put more pressure on our goal line, but thanks to excellent saves by stand in goal keeper Tom Vernon and stout defending by our defence Leamington did not manage to score. Unfortunately Derby struggled to put as much pressure on Leamington in the 2nd half as in the 1st half and so the match ended at 0-2 to Derby. However this was Derby’s 10th successive win in the league.

Man of the match this week went to James Holder who from right back marked his opposite number effectively whilst also making several attacks into the D. Other players worthy of merit were Des Pope in the centre of midfield, who held the ball well and made some great passes, and Sundeep Mann at centre forward whose first touch caused plenty of trouble for Leamington's defence. I’d also like to thank Ian McWilliams for standing in for Pete Chesney at Left mid and performed admirably. Lastly I’d like to thank John Mann for playing despite having had a University Reunion the night before.

Derby now has 5 games to go until the end of the season and sit in 1st place 6 points clear on 39 points. However 2nd place South Notts have 2 games in hand. With games against on form Berkswell & Balsall Common and the traditionally difficult Tamworth game to go, Derby still have it all to play for. Next week’s match is a 12pm home game vs. Daventry.