Post by Dave on Sept 18, 2010 18:10:56 GMT
I found myself asking the South Devon league Fixture Secretary this morning if he did not like playing on Ipplepen’s home pitch as this was the third game played away on the trot, but to be fair to Ant as teams have more than one team at most clubs and only one pitch to play on, it’s a nightmare trying to arrange so many games on too few pitches and make sure the season does not over run.
I have never been to this ground before and its the school pitch belonging to brixham community college. It slopes a bit down the whole length of it down the the right hand corner of it, but what was a disgrace was the length of the grass as it was far to long to play a game of football on.
I was certainly hoping to see a much better display by the lads today than I saw last week and I was a bit shocked by the halftime team talk from the manager who was clearly very unhappy and angry despite Ipplepen winning the game by two goals to nil at the break. They certainly defended so much better and made chance after chance during the first half to score more goals and had reduced Villa to the one single chance that came by way of a lucky defection.
The Villa chance came very early in the game as an attempted clearance by a Pen defender hit a another player and the ball flew back past the Pen defence and was picked up by the Villa forward who looked certain to score but the Pen Keeper spread himself well and blocked the goal bound shot with his legs.
After that the rest of the first half was played mainly in the Villa half and Ant played a number of quality through balls through for his striker partner who blasted most of his shots high over the bar or wide of the goal, it’s the sort of balls Ant cries out for after making good runs in behind defences and seldom ever finds get played to him.
Ant certainly made the first Ipplepen goal after some magic play out wide on the left as he beat his man very classily and ran into the box and just when it looked he was going to try and squeeze the ball in on the near post he changed the shape of his body and played an inch perfect pass to his striker partner wearing the number nine shirt who was on the penalty spot and with the keeper drawn to his near post by Ant in the first place had an open goal to slot the ball into.
Ipplepen kept up the pressure on the Villa goal mouth for the rest of the half and had a number of good chances from corners that were all headed over the bar. Their second goal came from a free kick out wide on the right hand side level with the half way line. The ball was floated up into the box and Pens number eight rose the highest and headed the ball past a very stranded Villa keeper.
Ant was able to get onto two balls that went over the heads of the Villa defenders and both times the only option was to try and lob the ball over the keeper, one effort grazed the top of the cross bar and the other dropping just past the left hand post.
Ipplepen started the second half still very much on top without creating to many chances early on in it, then Ant had the sort of ball played to him he thrives on and held of the challenge of a Villa defender and fired a low and powerful right foot shot past the Villa keeper from the edge of the box.
At three nil down Villa looked a very beat and dejected side indeed and then due to a bad defensive mistake by the Pen left back, got a goal back and suddenly came alive and had much more of the game in the time remaining. The ball had been punted high and long and the Pen left back made the mistake of letting the ball bounce over his head and Villa’s number ten was in clean on goal with only the keeper to beat and coolly slotted the ball past him.
Villa starting winning all the midfield battles and set up a number of attacks without really forcing the Pen keeper into having to make any saves, most of the Villa efforts were shots from outside the box and either went wide of the goal of high over the crossbar.
Ipplepen took back control of the game for the last ten minutes and could have added to their lead it the ball had been fed to the feet of Ant or his strike partner instead of taking pot shots from outside the area. Still a good enjoyable game that saw Ipplepen get back to winning ways on a very pleasant sunny afternoon when the sun was able to poke its heads out through any gaps in the clouds.
The pitch
Action from the match
Ant lobs the keeper
Ants goal
Ant gets another shot away
Time to pack up and go home
I have never been to this ground before and its the school pitch belonging to brixham community college. It slopes a bit down the whole length of it down the the right hand corner of it, but what was a disgrace was the length of the grass as it was far to long to play a game of football on.
I was certainly hoping to see a much better display by the lads today than I saw last week and I was a bit shocked by the halftime team talk from the manager who was clearly very unhappy and angry despite Ipplepen winning the game by two goals to nil at the break. They certainly defended so much better and made chance after chance during the first half to score more goals and had reduced Villa to the one single chance that came by way of a lucky defection.
The Villa chance came very early in the game as an attempted clearance by a Pen defender hit a another player and the ball flew back past the Pen defence and was picked up by the Villa forward who looked certain to score but the Pen Keeper spread himself well and blocked the goal bound shot with his legs.
After that the rest of the first half was played mainly in the Villa half and Ant played a number of quality through balls through for his striker partner who blasted most of his shots high over the bar or wide of the goal, it’s the sort of balls Ant cries out for after making good runs in behind defences and seldom ever finds get played to him.
Ant certainly made the first Ipplepen goal after some magic play out wide on the left as he beat his man very classily and ran into the box and just when it looked he was going to try and squeeze the ball in on the near post he changed the shape of his body and played an inch perfect pass to his striker partner wearing the number nine shirt who was on the penalty spot and with the keeper drawn to his near post by Ant in the first place had an open goal to slot the ball into.
Ipplepen kept up the pressure on the Villa goal mouth for the rest of the half and had a number of good chances from corners that were all headed over the bar. Their second goal came from a free kick out wide on the right hand side level with the half way line. The ball was floated up into the box and Pens number eight rose the highest and headed the ball past a very stranded Villa keeper.
Ant was able to get onto two balls that went over the heads of the Villa defenders and both times the only option was to try and lob the ball over the keeper, one effort grazed the top of the cross bar and the other dropping just past the left hand post.
Ipplepen started the second half still very much on top without creating to many chances early on in it, then Ant had the sort of ball played to him he thrives on and held of the challenge of a Villa defender and fired a low and powerful right foot shot past the Villa keeper from the edge of the box.
At three nil down Villa looked a very beat and dejected side indeed and then due to a bad defensive mistake by the Pen left back, got a goal back and suddenly came alive and had much more of the game in the time remaining. The ball had been punted high and long and the Pen left back made the mistake of letting the ball bounce over his head and Villa’s number ten was in clean on goal with only the keeper to beat and coolly slotted the ball past him.
Villa starting winning all the midfield battles and set up a number of attacks without really forcing the Pen keeper into having to make any saves, most of the Villa efforts were shots from outside the box and either went wide of the goal of high over the crossbar.
Ipplepen took back control of the game for the last ten minutes and could have added to their lead it the ball had been fed to the feet of Ant or his strike partner instead of taking pot shots from outside the area. Still a good enjoyable game that saw Ipplepen get back to winning ways on a very pleasant sunny afternoon when the sun was able to poke its heads out through any gaps in the clouds.
The pitch
Action from the match
Ant lobs the keeper
Ants goal
Ant gets another shot away
Time to pack up and go home