EDWIN GREAVES, BRINKLOW FC MANAGER, WRITES ABOUT HIS TEAM'S 2-8 WIN @ WOODLANDS ON SATURDAY...

EDWIN & THE BODGING...

"Woodlands started the game off brightly and controlled the early stages, with the extra man in midfield and playing some neat football. We managed to deal with their early pressure, with Tatenda Baku orgainising the defence.


We forced the 1st corner of the game in the 8th minute, Sam Wade took it, passed to Jordan Hayward who crossed for Morgan Pulford to score with a header: 0-1.


As you would expect, Woodlands went on the offensive and had a great opportunity in the 20th minute to level the score when their forward went through one-on-one with Daniel Mallinson but he dragged his shot wide.


In the 23rd minute, great link-up play between Jordan Hayward and Morgan Pulford set up Fabian Spence to score his first goal for Brinklow: 0-2.


In the 32nd minute, Lloyd Pulford and Morgan Pulford linked up for Fabian Spence to shoot over the target. In the 35th minute a Woodlands corner lead to a free header in the box that went just past the post.


We went straight down the other end and scored as a Fabian Spence pass found Blake Kassar, who finished in style: 0-3.


In stoppage-time Woodlands had a corner which was unfortunately punched into his own net by Daniel Mallinson: 1-3. We kicked off and the referee blew up (he exploded, Edwin?) for half-time.
Half-time: 1-3.

I expected a big response from Woodlands at the beginning of the 2nd half and they didn't disappoint; Daniel Cassidy was brought on and made an immediate difference.


In the 48th minute Woodlands had a shot that hit the post and somehow the player following up managed to shoot over the bar. In the 51st minute a Sam Wade cross was headed back across goal by Fabian Spence for Blake Kassar to force over the line: 1-4.


In the 56th minute a Neil Guest free-kick was headed wide by Macca Richards and on 61 minutes Woodlands cut our lead with a shot beating Daniel Mallinson on his near post: 2-4.
After 64 minutes Fabian Spence was replaced by Ryan Jones.


On 70 minutes Woodlands were reduced to 10 men as their captain got sent off for a incident involving Morgan Pulford, who then scored in the 75th minute with a long range shot from outside the 18 yard box: 2-5.


In the 79th minute more good work by Jordan Hayward found Morgan Pulford in space and again Morgan's long range shot found the net to complete his 1st hat-trick for Brinklow: 2-6.


After 80 minutes Maccaleigh Richards headed against the crossbar from a Jordan Hayward corner and in the 81st minute Daniel Mallinson pulled off the save of the match from a Mitchell Thomson freekick.


83rd minute Dylan Campbell-Coker passed to Jordan Hayward in our half and Jordan's run took him the whole length of the pitch before he managed to cross for Blake Kassar to score at the near post to complete his 1st hat-trick for Brinklow: 2-7.


There was still time for us to get another goal in the 87th minute when Sam Wade passed to Ryan Jones who went on a good run and then picked out Blake Kassar in the box, who made no mistake to score his 4th goal of the game: 2-8.


Full-time: 2-8... (did the ref explode again, Edwin???)

In summing up this game:


Beforehand only the people in our changing-room gave us any chance of getting something out of this game.


We rode our luck at times but nobody cannot say we didn't deserve our win and the 3pts today. We played the kind of football that the players and everybody connected to Brinklow can be proud of.

Positives:


Daniel Mallinson being captain today, hopefully a proud moment for Mally and a day he will remember for a long time.


The performance and the attitude of the players today was excellent from start to finish.


We knew we were up against a very good Woodlands side and to score 8 good goals against them and away from home was a great achievement. When Woodlands got back into the game, we just bounced back and simply kept playing to our strengths, which pleased me.

Negatives:


Sorry lads but we still conceded another two goals.


Woodlands hit the woodwork twice and at times we were guilty of overplaying at the back and got caught in possession. On another day we could easily have been punished for those mistakes.


We have started over the last few games to move the ball around more quickly but I still think we can still improve in that area of our play.

I would like to wish all at Woodlands the very best for the remainder of their season and I know they will be in the mix come the end of the season.

As for us we now have 10 games to go, the season itself has gone by so quickly. We just need to continue playing to our strengths and improving on our weaknesses. We are slowly moving in the right direction and the team spirit is improving in the dressing-room week after week. We now have to get as many points as possible from the remaining games and see where that takes us...

On to the next game..."

EDWIN GREAVES, MANAGER, BRINKLOW FC...