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Date: 9th January 2011
Venue: Away – Slowbottom Park
Opponents: Norman
A cold January afternoon saw Taverham visit Slowbottom Park to take on Norman.
Oli was doing winter nets at cricket, so Danny “The Kitten” Holmes went between the sticks, the theory being that some of Marks legendary goalkeeping ability must be passed down in the genes to Danny.
Dave and Mike decided to try a 3-5-2 formation with the belief that Ham, Mark and Hagi could easily contain the Norman forward line and this would enable us to dominate midfield with James, Will and Charlie in the middle and Stevie and Brad as wing backs.
We started strongly with the midfield well on top and before long from a corner James put the ball away from close range to make it 1-0.
Shortly after a ball over the top saw Jack race through and smash the ball home.
We were pretty much camped in the Norman half which was fortunate as we were all concerned when the ball came into our half as we had a new linesman who looked a bit dodgy.
Just before half time Jack set Joel through with a neat pass from the edge of the area and he coolly slotted it home.
Half Time Norman 0 – Taverham 3
The second half continued with Taverham dominance with the boys gradually getting to grips with the new formation.
Danny impressed in goal with a good save from a free kick and showed great hands confidently plucking a corner out of the air,
To their credit Norman continued to battle on and never gave up, their football and endeavour belied their bottom of the table position and if they play like they did in the second half against us they will surely pick up some points.
Try as we might we could not increase our lead with Mark in particular going close.
Full Time Norman 0 – Taverham 3
Man of the Match: The team – A hard fought victory after a long lay off.
Date: 23rd January 2011
Venue: Away – Mulbarton Marshes
Opponents: Mulbarton Wanderers
A cold dreary January afternoon saw the lads visit Mulbarton.
Now I have much criticised our pitch at Tuddenham and I have been told that it has also been criticised in match reports by Mulbarton. How on earth they could have the nerve to criticise our pitch when you see the condition of theirs. It was barely playable and resembled no mans land from world war 1, but we’re used to bad pitches and we’re Taverham so we play on anything!
Oli was on cricket duty again so we had the magic man in goal. Dave and Mike staying with the 3-5-2 formation that was proving effective.
And so it did again, from the kick off ball back to Charlie, great diagonal ball out to Brad on the right, he beat his man and put in a cross to James who squared for Jack who lashed it home with barely 15 seconds on the clock.
To some extent this early goal didn’t do us any favours and the boys took their foot off the pedal. Whilst still well on top the game started to develop into a midfield battle with the dreadful pitch helping Mulbartons kick and rush tactics.
A corner midway through the first half saw Mulbarton equalise with a scrappy headed goal.
And a few minutes later a ball was played over the top to the lone Mulbarton forward (by far and away their best player) who slotted it home to give Mulbarton an undeserved lead.
However no sooner had we kicked when Mark got a header goalward which Danny finished off.
Half Time Mulbarton 2 – Taverham 2
From the start of the second half we gradually took more and more control until the ball was almost permanently in their half with only the occasional punt upfield by Mulbarton which was easily dealt with by Sam, Hagi & Ham.
Joel came off for a break and Stevie went in goal to release that very particular brand of mayhem that is Will Miller.
After a short while Will found some space in the box, beat his man and fired home.
The ref who for the most part had been ok, but took no action against a Mulbarton player who took a flying leap into the back of Danny. It was a dreadful challenge and could have resulted in serious injury, yet the ref allowed play to continue, fortunately Danny being made of teak got up and shrugged it off. The Mulbarton player who committed the foul was called by his team mates “Lakey” , could this be because his surname is Lake, and funnily enough the refs surname is also Lake?
Good interplay on the left saw Will cross the ball to an unmarked jack to score from close range.
We continued to dominate and saw the game comfortably out.
A good result on a dreadful pitch on which we could easily have dropped points, but the boys applied themselves really well in the second half to earn the victory.
Full Time Mulbarton 2 – Taverham 4
Man of the Match: Danny – In a war of attrition you need your captain to stand tallest and that’s what Danny did today.
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