Eastleigh 1-3 City
Oct 16, 2011 18:56:49 GMT
Post by hedges on Oct 16, 2011 18:56:49 GMT
All very quite here, still recovering are we? ;D
Im sure the reason for this is more that those of us who made it to Eastleigh yesterday have already shown our appreciation to the players and management team, applauding everyone of them as they entered the Eastleigh club house post game. I offered the 5 or 6 players that came back into the city clubhouse for a swift shandy a pint but happily, for my bank balance none of them accepted on the grounds they had to drive home and were already on the 'red line' having had a couple of celebratory tins on the coach back.
The day started for Steve and myself with a nice Bacon Butty down City, before boarding the 'coach of hard knocks' to Eastleigh, Its called this because the driver took us all on an impromptu tour of Eastleigh's local sports facilities including a Golf Course, Rugby club,Bowls Club and Sports Centre which were all down single track roads and required a dodgy reversing maneuver to recover from....it was on one such maneuver we manged to hit 'The only tree in Eastleigh' and got stuck in a ditch, happily the driver managed to wheelspin his way out but it can't have done the coach much good....before finally making the Football ground.
Once there a large proportion of coach goers took in the direction of the 'local' pub, 'The Cricketers' which was a '10 minute walk away' around country roads with no paths. It actually turned out to be a 20minute walk away and once there not a hint of an update on the Scores from the Liverpool v United Game.
Having took up a big table in this lovely country style pub we proceeded to play the 'Thumb Master' drinking game and after some clarification on 'local rules' decided im just not very good at it!! But the banter was great fun!!
At 2.15 we made the 20minute stroll back up to the ground before kickoff and yet another pre-match shandy.
The game itself was a great performance from the lads allround with everyone giving 110%. The first half was very evenly balanced with both sides creating half chances. Bashams goal was a long kick up by Mooney one bounce and a very cooly taken lob over the advancing keepers head, happily an increasingly familiar sight! Before Pondy was bought down in the box and Bash had the chance to take us into Half-time with a 2 goal cushion, unfortunately it was a poor spot kick and the Eastleigh keeper made an excellent double save, first to save the pen then the follow up from Pondy....in my opinion justice was done as I don't think it was a pen.
The Second Half Spurred on by the '12th Man' City dominated large chunks of the half, got the ball on the ground and passed it around in the fashion we have started to get used to again. Pondy's first was an absolute stunner, with the ball coming across his body, outside the box he put his left boot through it and it nestled high into the top right corner of the eastleigh goal. The keeper was a spectator and never even moved. Bouyd by our 2-0 cushion we all felt we could almost get the party started, but not before Pondy had his Second of the game with a free header 5 yards out from a Barcelos corner to put Eastleigh well and truly out the cup.
Eastleigh's biggest threat was set peices and crosses into the box but when you have a 6.9 keeper in the form that Mooney is in thats not really much of a threat. They did however get a penalty to get one back after our Second...I couldn't really see the incident though...not that it matters to much
Pondy came close to Hat trick after finding a small amount of space and made a snap shot back across goal which went inches wide of the far post, Lee Steele hit the bar and Matt Clarke also came close.
After the match, another Beverage and applauding the players in the Eastleigh clubhouse we got back onto the Coach where there was an anticipation we may go home in reverse, but this was not to be and the sing-songs carried on throughout the journey home.
All in all a fantastic day out, which was obviously helped by the result, But along with decent company and pub banter would have been a good day out anyway regardless of results.
This was my first 'proper' away day since Burton and it certainly had many similarities to that day....fingers crossed for a decent draw on Monday!!!
Im sure the reason for this is more that those of us who made it to Eastleigh yesterday have already shown our appreciation to the players and management team, applauding everyone of them as they entered the Eastleigh club house post game. I offered the 5 or 6 players that came back into the city clubhouse for a swift shandy a pint but happily, for my bank balance none of them accepted on the grounds they had to drive home and were already on the 'red line' having had a couple of celebratory tins on the coach back.
The day started for Steve and myself with a nice Bacon Butty down City, before boarding the 'coach of hard knocks' to Eastleigh, Its called this because the driver took us all on an impromptu tour of Eastleigh's local sports facilities including a Golf Course, Rugby club,Bowls Club and Sports Centre which were all down single track roads and required a dodgy reversing maneuver to recover from....it was on one such maneuver we manged to hit 'The only tree in Eastleigh' and got stuck in a ditch, happily the driver managed to wheelspin his way out but it can't have done the coach much good....before finally making the Football ground.
Once there a large proportion of coach goers took in the direction of the 'local' pub, 'The Cricketers' which was a '10 minute walk away' around country roads with no paths. It actually turned out to be a 20minute walk away and once there not a hint of an update on the Scores from the Liverpool v United Game.
Having took up a big table in this lovely country style pub we proceeded to play the 'Thumb Master' drinking game and after some clarification on 'local rules' decided im just not very good at it!! But the banter was great fun!!
At 2.15 we made the 20minute stroll back up to the ground before kickoff and yet another pre-match shandy.
The game itself was a great performance from the lads allround with everyone giving 110%. The first half was very evenly balanced with both sides creating half chances. Bashams goal was a long kick up by Mooney one bounce and a very cooly taken lob over the advancing keepers head, happily an increasingly familiar sight! Before Pondy was bought down in the box and Bash had the chance to take us into Half-time with a 2 goal cushion, unfortunately it was a poor spot kick and the Eastleigh keeper made an excellent double save, first to save the pen then the follow up from Pondy....in my opinion justice was done as I don't think it was a pen.
The Second Half Spurred on by the '12th Man' City dominated large chunks of the half, got the ball on the ground and passed it around in the fashion we have started to get used to again. Pondy's first was an absolute stunner, with the ball coming across his body, outside the box he put his left boot through it and it nestled high into the top right corner of the eastleigh goal. The keeper was a spectator and never even moved. Bouyd by our 2-0 cushion we all felt we could almost get the party started, but not before Pondy had his Second of the game with a free header 5 yards out from a Barcelos corner to put Eastleigh well and truly out the cup.
Eastleigh's biggest threat was set peices and crosses into the box but when you have a 6.9 keeper in the form that Mooney is in thats not really much of a threat. They did however get a penalty to get one back after our Second...I couldn't really see the incident though...not that it matters to much
Pondy came close to Hat trick after finding a small amount of space and made a snap shot back across goal which went inches wide of the far post, Lee Steele hit the bar and Matt Clarke also came close.
After the match, another Beverage and applauding the players in the Eastleigh clubhouse we got back onto the Coach where there was an anticipation we may go home in reverse, but this was not to be and the sing-songs carried on throughout the journey home.
All in all a fantastic day out, which was obviously helped by the result, But along with decent company and pub banter would have been a good day out anyway regardless of results.
This was my first 'proper' away day since Burton and it certainly had many similarities to that day....fingers crossed for a decent draw on Monday!!!
