Lambourn Win Local Derby

Kintbury Rangers 1 Lambourn Sports 3

(Phil Annets, NBFL Media Relations Officer)

Mooney’s Magnificent Strike

Adrian Mooney sealed victory for an impressive Lambourn Sports side with an audacious, spectacular ‘David Beckham-esque’ strike from inside his own half seconds before the final whistle to move Lambourn in the quarter finals of the Charity Shield.

In an error strewn first five minutes that saw defensive mistakes gift golden opportunities for either side, both Kintbury’s keeper Paul O’Hagan and Lambourn’s goalie Steve Annetts produced fine early saves from Adrian Mooney and Scott Bowers respectively. However, another error on five minutes by the Kintbury defence laid the ball at the feet of Matt Hendren on the edge of the area who had plenty of time to find his spot in the bottom left hand corner of the net to make it 1-0 to Lambourn.

The remainder of the first half witnessed some excellent one touch football by Lambourn, particularly up front with Ben Matthews, Adrian Mooney and Matt Hendren linking up well on several occasions putting pressure on the Kintbury goal and unlucky not to stretch their lead. Kintbury’s response was a little less structured reliant on hurried long balls out of defence to capitalise on the pace of their forwards. Despite Lambourn’s dominance, including a 25 yard running shot from Liam Griffin that bounced off the top of the bar, it was Kintbury who produced the best save of the match just before half time when Jake Shearsby shot from 30 yards forcing Steve Annetts to tip the ball onto the bar and over.

The second half saw Kintbury begin to play more football on the ground, and after an opening fifteen minutes of half chances to both sides, they equalised with a superb left footed free kick by Jake Shearsby from the right hand corner of the 18 yard box that curled around the wall and into the top of the net. There was little in the way of goalmouth action for the next quarter of an hour, but soon after Lambourn’s Ben Matthews collected a throw-in on the edge of the area, turned and shot, taking a heavy deflection and looping over O’Hagan in the Kintbury goal to restore Lambourn’s lead.

Lambourn had chances to secure victory in the last 10 minutes, but with seconds remaining it was Kintbury who were awarded a free kick on the half way line. All 10 outfield players moved into the box as keeper O’Hagan stepped up to launch the ball forward. Lambourn quickly cleared their lines and the ball was played up to Mooney just inside the centre circle. A quick look up saw the Kintbury keeper still only halfway back to his goal and so Mooney fired the ball high over his head to bounce up into an empty net. Cue wild scenes of celebration amongst the Lambourn team who mobbed Mooney en masse, and seconds later the final whistle was blown.

Lambourn First Team vs Harwell Village

Lambourn vs Harwell Village

Starting line up:
McEvett, A.Hendrid, M.Hendrid, S.Please, C.Prioyer, T.Goody, D.Livings, L.Griffin, S.Mooney, B.Matthews, F.Joyce, T.woods, S.connors, S.Annets, D.Crawford.

First game of season. We didn't start very well, I think the whole team and even myself and Rob were quite tense so I think that rubbed off on the players, because they all know if we get a promotion, we will be playing Hellenic football next season. But after 20 minutes we got the ball down and started to play the way we want to play with a lot of good work from Goody and Prioyer down the flanks. The visiting side had a half chance in the first half, but on possession and chances, I thought we could have maybe gone in at half time 1-0 up.

Second half, we put the foot on the gas and upped our game even more. Although Harwell should have gone 1-0 up. After a good spell of possesion we lost the ball in midfield and we were caught on the break by not being switched on at the back. But McEvett came off his line and made a good save. Other than that, Harwell did not cause us a single problem in the second half-and hopefully we can work on it, to be switched on at all times. But the lads never gave in, and in the last 15 minutes there was only one team that wanted three points. Prioyer and Griffin came off with slight knocks and Woods and Connor came on to give us a bit more fire-power, and we got our just rewards with a corner from Woods, flicked on by Joyce, and Goody smashed it in with a left foot volley.

Myself and Rob were very happy with the lads and showed a lot of character, considering a lot of the boys have only played two or three games together, we were both very happy. We were quite fortunate but we have got a good squad of about 20 lads that can do a job for us. So this is a good headache for me and Rob to have. We got rid of a lot of dead wood in pre-season and we brought in seven new players that have made a very good impact, with the right attitude. So hopefully that can rub off on all the younger lads. A good example, Steve Please drove back from Doncaster on Saturday morning to play for us, and that says it all really, and he's from Swindon. I'm expecting big things this year from Terry Wood and especially Sam Connors. He's only 17 but if he knuckles down and listens, he's definitely got a good future in the game. Hopefully for our next game we will have Mark Bones back from holiday and maybe one or two new faces.

Macca.

First Team Information 2010/11 Season

News for the first team and match reports will appear here during the season.