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Post by Dave on Jul 30, 2013 15:36:00 GMT
PSF. Stoke Gabriel V Plymouth Parkway 30th July 2013
Venue.. Churchward Memorial Ground
Kick-off 7pm
Report and match pictures to follow |
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Post by Dave on Jul 30, 2013 21:24:03 GMT
After Buckland could only manage a lack lustre performance against Plymouth Parkway that ended in defeat, the big question was could Stoke Gabriel do any better. Well the simple answer is a very big yes and only because of all the hard work the Stoke players put in. I’m really warming to the Stoke Gabriel team, it has a good mix of talented players, real battlers and they all play for each other
Tom the wonderful provided the names of the Stoke players, the Parkway lot were asked and said they would but did not bother, so I was more than happy they ended up getting well beaten in the end. While Stoke started reasonability well, it looked for the first ten minutes of the first half, that the pace and trickery of Parkways number nine and ten, were going to cause Stoke so many problems. On two occasions they were in on goal with only the keeper to beat with no Stoke defender anywhere near them.
Their number nine was clean in on goal and looked certain to score, but passed the ball to a team mate on the left, he in turn rolled the ball back to him and it was a simple tap in. Only the flag went up for off-side and there were plenty of complaints from the Parkway players when the goal was not given.
Stokes first half chance fell to Olly Critchlow, Stoke won a free lick and the ball was played into the Parkway box and Olly was there to take a swing at the ball, but his volley cleared the crossbar. Their second chance came when Ben Towler put in a good deep cross from the right hand side of the pitch, Dave Worthington hit a volley that went well over the bar.
At the other end Parkways number nine had the ball played up to him and he made the neatest of turns and hit the ball well enough but his shot also went sailing over the crossbar. Stoke came close to taking the lead after winning a corner, the ball was played into the box and Olly Critchlow hit a sweet right foot shot that just went wide of the right hand post.
Gary Fisher was as strong as ever on the ball and as physical when trying to win it back, he got pulled up for a number of fouls and one or two of them I felt were simply strong and fair challenges. He got pulled up for yet another foul and this time showed his frustration by swearing and the end result was the ref showed him the yellow card.
Stoke got their first of two goals after winning a free kick some 40 yards out on the left hand side of the pitch. The ball got played in and there was Ben Towler just inside the Parkway box who hit a fine shot past the keeper giving him no chance at all.
Stoke then added to their lead and this time Ben was the provider, he played a lovely deep cross to the back post from out on the right and Olly Critchlow said thank you very much as he headed the ball into the net.
The second half saw very little goal action, but where as in the first ten minutes of the first half Stoke were always looking to knock long balls, now they were looking more like Brazil as they stoked the ball around with ease. Parkway tried in vain to up their game and found every time they got anywhere near the Stoke box, the Stoke defence was in a you are not going to get past mode.
Attack after attack by Parkway was broken up with ease and Parkway ended up just taking pot shots from out side of the area. Their number five did have a glorious chance after the ball came into the Stoke box from the right, but he headed the ball past the left hand post.
Stoke were doing a wonderful job holding onto their lead and always looking to play in balls behind the Parkway defence who were pushing up, with better timing of their runs they would have been clean in on goal on a number of occasions, but sadly were getting caught off side to many times.
A very decent performance by Stoke and I would expect them to be challenging at the top end of the table this season.
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