Men's 3rd XI: Loadsa Possession, Just Three Goals (And Points)

Twelve fit players, and two more wanting a few minutes to try out their recovering injuries. A tactical plan based on these two lasting 10-15 minutes each thrown into total confusion when they both pronounced themselves fully fit to stay on. I do like a good challenge, me, and trying to work out on the fly how to rotate 14 players so that everyone gets a game and gets to play somewhere vaguely approximating their best position while trying to concentrate on playing in that same match myself was certainly stretching. Ever wondered why I draw up these master plans that no-one reads on a Friday? That's why!

The side had a largely familiar look to it on the whole, supplemented by Steve returning to try out that troublesome ankle and Zinny making a more than welcome reappearance after a pretty unpleasant illness which had kept him out for some weeks. It was great also to renew acquaintances with our erstwhile colleague Dave Stewart, now having moved from Cambridge to Ely and not surprisingly deciding also to move to a club with the word "Ely" in its name.

We lined up pretty much as usual, and having urged the team to set the pace I was very pleased to see that we also rolled out a good quick passing game. We had masses of possession in the first half, but for whatever reason it was rapidly turning into one of those afternoons when we just could not put the ball away. We created chances, but too frequently shot at the keeper, or from a narrow angle, or just saw their keeper produce a very decent save. So it continued until the very final minute of the half, when George applied the finishing touch to a slightly messy follow-up to a short corner. Great time to score, and we spoke at half-time about the need to stay patient, keep possession, and the chances would inevitably come against a tiring team who did only have 10 men, to be fair.

We pretty much did that in the second half, and chances did eventually come, allowing us to stroll to a pretty comfortable 3-0 lead with 5 or 10 minutes to go without ever being in any serious danger of conceding ourselves. Indeed Dave had not touched the ball by this point except to retrieve one for a 16. I don't have the Opta stats to hand, but my not totally scientific estimate is that we must have had about 70% of the possession, or at least certainly enough to have scored a lot more than 3 on another day. Zinny picked up number two in a manner which eludes me now, beyond that Will set it up, before Will also set up the goal of the game by receiving a pass 10m out on the left of the goal, turning sharply to completely eliminate his marker, then having the presence of mind to slide it across the advancing keeper to leave George a tap-in on the far post for 3-0.

We did have the ball in the net for a fourth time, which generated great excitement in the blue ranks because it was none other than Matty making his second circle penetration ever in a Nomads shirt, but this time finishing with a chest high strike of which Lloydy would have been proud. Rich was in fact there to witness it first hand in his capacity as umpire at that end, with the result that Matty was either cruelly robbed by Rich blowing for a PC (Matty's version) or lucky to escape without a card for playing on after the whistle (Rich's version). Either way, no goal, and Matt's long quest continues.

The game safe at this point, Ely started to have their own period of possession and to make incursions into our D. From one of these the ball was flicked hard and just under the crossbar, with the skipper desperately trying to line it up with an up periscope stick. No need to worry though, because in his first action of the game Dave simply waved his hand like a man with no greater care in the world than to dismiss an irritating fly, and the ball was deflected high and away from danger. Reflexes of an 18 year old, that man. Dave was also called into action late on to save a flicked short corner, and having thus demonstrated the virtues of concentrating throughout the game even if you are not greatly involved, he hept his and our clean sheet.

Hugely inefficient conversion of possession into goals from us, but a clean sheet, three goals, three points, and off to The Brook for what was an stonkingly good tea. With most of us wanting to preserve our trim and athletic frames and to save space for the Xmas Dinner in the evening, the field was clear for the Longson family to set new records for spicy chicken goujons and breaded mushrooms, though I failed to record the score on the teamsheet and Ely didn't sign it off so it doesn't count.

Special final mentions for Leo, who capped a series of increasingly assured performances over the last few weeks, and for Will who put in a fantastic man of the match effort for us up front, with a huge work rate which saw him at the heart of everything which we did well up there, along with setting up all three goals. Deserved one or two himself, but if you continue to play like that Will then the goals will come.

Third place at Christmas, where can we take it to thereafter? It'll be fun finding out.