Back to winning ways

Team Sheet : EthanR, EthanT, Isaac, James, Lewis, Oliver, Rokas, Rui, Stanley, Thomas, Travis

A full-strength squad again, and yet another home game. But with an earlier start than usual, this was welcomed, even if the damp, colder weather wasn’t!

Oliver, Isaac, Rui, Rokas, Travis, Lewis and Thomas kicked us off and exactly as per last week were super quick into attack. Travis, Lewis and Thomas sped into the Giants’ half with some neat passing. Thomas’ quick feet drew a couple of Giant’s players, which was enough to leave the goal largely open as he passed the ball across the box for Lewis to slot home. Hopefully this is something we can do every week now!

This time our opponents could not return the favour as the Iguanas continued to push from the restart. A brief Giants’ break was collected readily by the Iguanas’ keeper, allowing the Iguanas to push back and maintain good pressure.

Despite the pressure, the Iguanas were being a little loose with the ball, and a number of well crafted opportunities to put more distance between the two sides were missed. Rui was called upon for some solid defending, calmly seeing the ball out and then using every part if his body, especially the back of his head, to deal with the following Giants’ corner. The Giants were largely being contained to long balls and shots, which were being comfortably dealt with, especially by Rui and Oliver. A free kick was also given to them, something else we’ve suffered in most games thus far, but both this and a couple of corners came to nothing.

James, EthanT, EthanR and Stanley replaced Isaac, Rui, Rokas and Travis. These guys continued the pressure on the Giants, and whilst free play shots weren’t quite coming off, a well taken corner from Lewis was jumped upon by Thomas to finally extend the Iguanas’ lead.

A brief spell of pressure from the Giants was aided by the Iguanas mis-kicking the ball regularly for a period. A couple of times this saw attempted shots but Oliver was on decent form again with diving saves to keep the ball out, more comfortably than it probably sounds.

Still the Iguanas pushed into the Giants’ half. EthanT and Stanley were blocking escape attempts from the Giants’ players. Thomas was displaying quick feet and Lewis was seizing on balls to take shots. But either the Giants’ keeper managed to keep the ball out, or shots were put wide, keeping the margin to two goals as the half-time whistle went.

Half time.

Oliver, Isaac, Rui, Rokas, Travis, Thomas and Lewis started the second half, and the Giants showed some steel from the break, reminding the Iguanas that concentration was vital. Our marking was poor from a throw in, a couple of players forgetting where “goal side” was and the Giants were given space and time to have a crack at goal. Oliver saw this danger and tipped the ball safely over the bar.

The Giants’ corner was intercepted by Lewis who dribbled well up the pitch, getting the ball to Rokas, then Thomas and back to Lewis, but the final shot was just saved by the Giants’ keeper. The goal kick from this tried to relieve the pressure, but after a few strong tackles the Iguanas won a corner. Travis took the corner really well, and Isaac met the ball strongly in the centre of the goal to force the ball in for his first Iguanas’ goal!

Isaac then turned to his defensive skills from the restart, blocking out a Giants’ push and releasing Lewis down the left-hand side. A great cross was whipped into the box and both Rokas and Thomas were unlucky not to be able to convert, just failing to dig the ball out of the ground and into the goal. In the process the Giants’ keeper was hurt and replaced by a Giant Giant! But he was going to be equally busy today following good defensive cover by Rui and Isaac, leading to another nice break from Travis, a cross by Lewis and Rokas only just putting the ball wide of the goal.

The pressure was now all from the Iguanas with all players being assertive in attack. Thomas was quick and strong down the right of the pitch, Travis was battling and delivering some lovely corners and Lewis had some decent shots. Our shooting wasn’t always in target, but the intent was spot on, and the team looked in little danger. A rare Giants’ shot went well wide, met by Oliver doing a “leaping salmon” impression as he realised late that the ball was going nicely wide.

James, Stanley and the two Ethans replaced Thomas, Rokas, Isaac and Rui. Despite attempted breaks by the Giants, the Iguanas kept up the pressure with a few corners and shots on goal, but accuracy was deserting us a little and we could not extend the goal count.

Then, just after the Giant keeper was rotated, a seemingly harmless break by the Giants wasn’t met with any urgency by the Iguanas. Before the team knew it and had spotted the danger, the ball was crossed with two Giants’ players free on the edge of the box. One of these released a very strong shot that beat Oliver. Against the general run of play, the Iguanas had been given a small lesson that we can never switch off.

The Iguanas picked up the pace a little more at this point. EthanT made a good break, slipping the ball to Lewis but the final shot went wide. The pair hooked up several more times as the game started to draw to a close, but the final product was missing to give a higher goal count.

The Giants were limited to only a couple more breaks themselves, opening up the Iguanas as we were once more a lot slower to the ball than we had been for most of the game. But fortunately the Giants were struggling to find the target and when they did the ball was easily saved.

The final whilst blew on a game that saw the Iguanas back to winning ways. With a little more sharpness on goal the scoreline could have been a lot higher, and a clean sheet was there for the taking save for some brief lapses in concentration. But this was a very strong and well-deserved result from the Iguanas, which will hopefully allow us to jump forwards into the sort of form we saw in the first two games of the season.

Iguana of the Match : James – an assured and very solid performance in defence. Great decision making on when to run with the ball at opponents, and when to safely clear it.