Won 4-1
Scorers: Alex Ricketts, John Aikin, Archie Barnes, Bert Andrews
MoM: Isaac Stroud
With thanks to team sponsor MFri
The Friars found themselves in damp conditions facing Ashford Crusaders away. The only good thing about damp conditions is that the Friars are more likely to see key defender Geoff Philpott in their ranks, taking a deserved break from farm responsibilities and specifically Cutting all your Cauliflowers for Christmas.
The Friars dominated from the start. Many chances were created, forcing some fine saves and near misses. An early short corner was converted with an Alex Ricketts thunderbolt. A second short corner saw the keeper save two strikes from John Aikin before succumbing to a crafty lob. Archie Barnes fired home a third goal from an ‘aerial take-down and instant shot – amazing and we’ll have to think of a name for that shot which was better than anything his dad would have conjured up! The score was 3-0 at half time.
Happy days for the Friars as they munched their Jaffa cakes courtesy of the VC’s stockpile and listened to wise words from Mike Barton and Trigger, in summary “just keep the ball”.
In the second half the midfield was again bossed for the Friars by Isaac Stroud who stepped up at centre-half, working hard and distributing tirelessly. Tony Jones dealt deftly with an arial pass into the D and forced a fine save from the Ashford keeper. Ashford scored from a short corner, spoiling Triggers’ clean sheet which plays havoc with his in-house family competition. The defence played well, but were thankfully under less pressure than recent matches. Many good plays are now coming from the engine room of the Friars youngsters – a machine that’s getting stronger and stronger with every game which thankfully counteracts the ageing, bashed about and rusty look of some of its body parts some of whom would struggle to pass an MOT these days. (no specific though interesting medical details are possible as they would exceed the word limit of these reports)
The youngsters may well work their magic in the engine room, but there was of course still room for a bit of “old school” hockey from the Philpott Playbook with a long ball from Councillor Ricketts finding Bert Andrews lurking deep behind the Ashford defence. Bert unleashed a blistering strike past the keeper – his first (of many hopefully) for the Friars – a beaming face for Bert and a great way to seal a 4-1 victory in what was a very good natured match.