North Park – 0 Gower Phoenix – 2

Blackheath common, located SE of the Isle of Dogs, is home to a famous annual fireworks show on Guy Fawkes night. This Sunday saw a distinct absence of fireworks as on a fine English February afternoon Gower Phoenix made hard work of overcoming bottom of the league North Park.

The Phoenix lined up in a 4-4-2 formation with Dan O’Hagan - Elliot Moore, Dens, Treen, Hill – Sam, Wall, De’ath, Jake – Jon, Russ. On a decent pitch with a calm wind the conditions were almost ideal, perhaps the long journey down alone explained Phoenix’s lethargy. Yet the men in maroon and black got off to a flying start, the shaky North Park defence struggled to clear their lines after a few direct balls and Elliot picked up a loose ball and hit a dipping shot from 25 yards that the goalkeeper decided to leave at his near post and was left embarrassed as the net bulged, 1-0 Phoenix.

The Phoenix defence rarely looked troubled by the North Park attack. They were more a danger to themselves as slip ups in clearing the lines effectively almost allowed North Park to equalise. Phoenix struggled to maintain decent possession in the midfield with both flanks being unfamiliar territory for De’ath and Sam who were often rushed into taking too heavy a first touch.

With Russ struggling with a series of injuries up front Jon had to run a lonely line up front but was strong with the ball, able to constantly find space for flicks or dangerous balls into the box. At one point Jon ran into the box shoulder to shoulder with a North Park defender who fell on the ball and proceeded to grab with his hands, a stonewall penalty if everyone’s minds but the ref who gave a drop-ball outside of the box. Phoenix also failed to capatalise on several dangerous corner balls that skidded across the penalty box and went into half-time 1-0 up.

After a half time rollicking the team emerged with much a more positive attitude towards simple passing and more effective tackling. However North Park almost equalised right from the off as a corner clearance came back and their forward sliced wide as the goal beckoned.

After this let off Gower began to put together some better football, playing short, simple passes and moving to collect the ball. Sam had a header and a slide shot wide after arriving late in the box and De’ath hit a stinging half volley that the keeper tipped over the bar. Russ also had a characteristic two step shuffle into the box before curling a shot just wide. Jon meanwhile was building up a massive shots to goal ratio blasting both sides of the goal and at their keeper before finally finishing an attack with aplomb to make it 2-0 Phoenix and the game was won.

This was by no means a vintage performance by the Phoenix. We have to all keeper calmer heads on our shoulders to ensure that play isn’t hurried, messy and disorganised. I was particularly concerned with the number of 50/50’s that we managed to lose, something that hasn’t been an issue to date. We need to improve the consistency of our tenacity, especially when players are coming back from injury or playing in unfamiliar positions. Heads should never go down and the work rate should never dip at 1-0 up.

Big cup game next week at home, bring it on.

MOTM: Jon – Despite missing a bucket load of chances Jon was a thorn in the opposition’s defence that they simply couldn’t handle. His strength and ability to make space in the final third was one of the games few highlights.