Men’s 2s Match reports

The new season pushed back for the 2s with a home friendly vs Holcombe. We didn’t even have to wait a minute for our first goal, with Ash Risby capitalising on a defensive mix up to put us 1-0 up. The game settled from then on, with Anchs remaining on top. We had a few chances to double our lead, with David Hopkins being denied by the goalkeeper and defender when only a few yards out from goal. However, that was soon forgotten (by David at least) when he managed to score a unbelievable goal from the edge of the D that spectators were heard quoting as “the best goal we’ve ever seen”. Others disagreed, with many remembering an excellent through ball from Mark Richardson to David, who completely scuffed the shot which snuck past the keeper. Who is right? I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Anchs picked up where they left off after half time, constantly pressuring Holcombe and looking very threatening. Two more goals were our reward, with Mike Selby getting on the rebound from a Drew Hughes drag flick, and Ash Risby getting his second with a brilliant solo goal. Both scorers had chance to get an extra goal each, but after about 20 shots from a few yards out, a 16 to Holcombe was the outcome for both players. Despite these misses, somehow neither won DotD, with that award going to David for… scoring… riddle me that?! Man of the match went to Joel Beard on his debut, who constantly looked a threat, with Mark Richardson not far behind in the votes but still getting champagne moment for his through ball for the second goal.

An excellent performance from every player, giving us confidence going into the start of the season next week at Cliftonville.

Men's 2's Vs Cliftonville - 3-0 Loss

The 2s had the pleasure of travelling away to Cliftonville for their first league game of the season. The game started well with some nice play from youngsters Joel Beard and Mark Richardson that almost resulted in a goal. However as the game went on and pressure built, Anchs found themselves 1-0 down despite several great saves from Darren Richardson. We also went down to 10 players after a poor choice of words were exchanged with the officials.

Unfortunately the second half Anchs never really regained their shape. The effort was there in terms of defending and winning the ball back however this was always let down by our distribution. Anchs were 3-0 down and again down to 10 men due to frustrations.

Not the start that Anchs wanted but hopefully a few lessons to learn for our first home game next week.

Right. Where do we start...

After last week's poor performance the Men's 2s went into today's game with high hopes that we could get the formula/formation right against what we would assume would be a formidable Canterbury opposition.

The game felt even for 10 minutes with opportunities going either way. This then changed when Anchs won a short corner and Drew Hughes drag flicked the ball bottom corner to give Anchs the lead.

The rest of the half felt like classic Anchs where we had opportunities to increase the lead but not quite having the execution. That repeat feeling of expecting the oppo to come back at us was looming.

Bring on the second half and what a second half it was! It started with Darren Richardson pulling off an incredible 1 on 1 save to keep Anchs spirits high.

Shortly after, Anchs counter attacked with constant work from Cashy and Ash Risby in the middle. This combined with great play from Joel Beard and Tom Wood, resulting in Anchs winning a penalty flick.

Up steps David Hopkins, who I think was putting the ball down on the spot before it had even been called. With no stress he put it away. 2-0.

My memory gets hazy at this point so the order might vary but further hard work and great play from Alex Hamer and others lead to a string of short corners. Drew stepped up rocketing one in the net. 3-0. This followed by Hamer putting another away from a short 4-0.

Short corners kept coming and Drew completed his hat trick with a third drag flick 5-0. Anchs were greedy for more and another goal was scored in open play by Tom Wood after some silky passing up the pitch from the team. 6-0.

Shortly before the end a pass/shot was put in by Gareth Price for Ben Selby to deflect past the keeper. 7-0.

Despite the scoreline the defence worked tirelessly with great tackles coming in from Tom Banfield and Neil Byrne.

MOTM went to Joel Beard who's skill and runs across the pitch caused the opposition constant problems.

It's worth noting that Canterbury battled hard and had a handful of skilful youngsters who kept going and constantly made life hard for us. I imagine in a few years they will really start to cause us problems and we appreciated that they never stopped or lost focus when the scoreline didn't go their way.

A huge thank you to Phil and Lacky for umpiring.

Bring on next week against Maidstone! Now the season has properly started!