CORNWALL FA vs RAF
ST BLAZEY FC – 05 DEC 07 – 1930hrs
Report by FS Bob Suggitt
CORNWALL FA 4 RAF 1
After the disappointment of the draw with the Royal Navy in the opening encounter in this seasons South & West Counties Championship Competition. The RAF Senior Mens team made the long journey down to Cornwall seeking their first win. Appreciating that the RAF had to go for all three points manager Keith Christie selected an attacking formation. Although missing a few regulars the confidence in the squad was high.
In a very open start Cornwall were quicker out of the blocks and with their keepers extremely long kicks and the physical presence upfront the RAF found it really hard to gain control with their passing game. It came of no surprise in the 12TH minute when Cornwall took the lead if under rather fortunate circumstances. With Morris struggling with an injury from a previous tackle Cornwall overloaded the RAF defence to deliver a right wing cross to the Cornwall centre forward who finished clinically on the half volley into the corner of the net from 12 yards. Worse was to follow a couple of minutes later, when after a poor pass in midfield the Cornwall No 7 advanced and hit a shot from 28 yards into the roof of Whitelams goal. The next attack from Cornwall resulting in a wasted free kick however it did earn Douglas and the Cornwalls No 8 yellow cards. However slowly but surely the RAF took control of the game and after a period of pressure they deservedly pulled a goal back. In the 31st minute a long ball by Fuller found Bartley who linked up twice with Shallicker to finish with a right foot shot from the edge of the box. The rest of the half definitely belonged to the RAF however they never really extended the Cornwall keeper for all the good approach work.
The second half took a familiar pattern to the first with Cornwall slowly gathering the momentum and they increased their lead when a cross from the left gave the Cornwall centre forward a header which was well saved by Whitelam however Cornwalls Ovens reacted quickest to slot the ball home. Whitelam was called into further action producing a good save from a freekick which had earnt Barnes a caution. Midway through the half the RAF manager used two of his substitutes replacing Brabbs with Matthews and Feeley with Gaze. A good run and pullback back by Morris resulted in Shallicker blasting over the top (even Ian Gair would of found difficulty in recovering this ball!). The game was getting even further stretched resulting in chances at either end whilst Gaze didn’t manage to hit the target with his, a fine run by the Cornwall No 11 stretched the RAF defence and fed the overlapping left back who finished with aplomb to close the game off. Manager Keith Christie will be disappointed to see potentially the first piece of silverware disappear but can be encouraged by some aspects of his team performance which the score line didn’t really reflect.
Squad:
Cpl Whitelam Brize Norton
Cpl Fuller Innsworth
Cpl Sammut Brize Norton
Cpl Barnes Odham
Cpl Feeley MOD London
SAC Thomas St Athan
Cpl Brabbs Cosford
SAC Douglas Odiham
Cpl Morris Corsham
Cpl Bartley Uxbridge
Cpl Shallicker Lossiemouth
Cpl Matthews Wittering
Cpl Gaze St Mawgan
SAC Jeffrey Marham