STARTING LINE-UP

GK - Dave Newman

RB - James Girkin

CB - Kabba Stevens

CB - Drew Girkin

LB - Alan Street

RCM - Russell Nelson

CM - Andrew Walker

LCM - Graham Street

RCF - Simon Levi

ST - Paul Street

LCF - Gareth Waterhouse

SUBS - Warren Thomas

Escape went into their 2nd pre-season fixture full of optimism having completed 2 hard weeks of training under the watchful eye of manager Ken Girkin, following their loss to Valence Heath.

There was only 1 absentee from the Escape line-up and that was in the shape of Jon Girkin.

Escape started the brightest of the 2 sides, passing the ball around crisply in the opening exchanges of this match and it wasn’t long before they tested the opposition keeper. A long ball was played up to the head of Escape’s resident number 15, Paul Street, who rose impressively to get the deftest of flicks on the ball to help it fall perfectly into the path of Simon Levi. Levi took the bobbling ball superbly in his stride and struck a perfect shot on the half volley that had to be clawed away by the R.C.C goalkeeper.

It wasn’t long before Escape made their dominance count when they won their 3rd corner of the game with the match only 10 minutes old. Free-kick and corner taker, Andrew Walker, stepped up and drilled in a perfect head height ball across the 6 yard box, which was met splendidly by the head of Alan Street and flew like a bullet into the top corner of the net.

Escape continued to press their opponents and could have doubled their lead 5 minutes later when Gareth Waterhouse showed incredible strength to hold off the challenge of an R.C.C defender and race clear only to lift the ball over the bar. Things took a turn for the worse for Escape when Paul Street was chasing a loose ball near the sideline and was brutally charged into by an R.C.C midfielder, resulting in 1 of Escape’s most exciting prospects for the new season, being taken to hospital, with what was later diagnosed to be a double fracture of his right collar bone.

Following Paul Street’s departure was the introduction of Warren Thomas.

Escape found it hard to get their heads back in the game immediately and could have paid the price when men were left unmarked at a free-kick and an R.C.C player was allowed to flash a free header over the bar.
This seemed to galvanise Escape however and when Simon Levi found himself inside of the 18 yard line, he attempted to flick the ball past an oncoming defender only for the defender to stick out an arm leaving the referee no choice but to point to the spot. Captain and resident penalty taker Graham Street coolly stepped up to despatch the penalty into the bottom left hand corner to double the visitors lead. His somewhat controversial celebration however resulted in a scuffle ensuing between several R.C.C players and Escape’s Andrew Walker and Warren Thomas.
The referee took no action and play resumed shortly afterwards.

With Escape 2-0 up, they started to play the ball around nicely and had 2 chances to make it 3 before half time when firstly Warren Thomas raced clear of the defence and beat the on-rushing keeper with a deft lob, which unfortunately also beat the cross-bar by a matter of centi-metres.
Warren Thomas was again involved in the next move when he picked out Simon Levi in the 18 yard box with a perfect 30 yard cross field pass. Levi in turn brought the ball down with a cute touch and in one movement flicked it over his marker’s head but unfortunately sliced his shot just wide of the near post, denying him the chance to stake an early claim for Goal Of The Season.

Half time came and went and Escape began the 2nd half very much the same as the 1st, carving open the opposition defence time after time with Warren Thomas again going extremely close on a couple of occasions, most notably a left footed shot that crept just the wrong side of the opposing goalkeeper’s right hand post.

Escape then went through a 5 minute spell where they seemed to switch off completely and after Andrew Walker was unusually caught in possession in the middle of the park, it allowed R.C.C to slip a good ball through the middle of Escape’s defence into the path of their speedy winger who slipped it past Dave Newman to reduce the deficit to 2-1.

Escape woke themselves up after this and Andrew Walker made amends for his part in conceding the goal with a terrifically weighted pass to Gareth Waterhouse which split the R.C.C defence in half and allowed Waterhouse to sprint clear and calmly place the ball across the body of the keeper into the far bottom corner of the net to register his 1st goal in Escape colours.
He could have doubled his tally late on when he received the ball in the right hand side of the penalty area and smashed a hard dipping volley towards the top corner only for the R.C.C goalkeeper to palm the ball onto the crossbar and out of play. From the resulting corner Kabba Stevens could also have opened his Escape account but put his header high and wide of the goal.

The referee blew up for the end of the game shortly afterwards and signalled the end of an excellent team display from Escape.
With such an impressive display from everyone, it would have been ideal for Ken Girkin to name an unchanged line-up for next week’s game, although due to Paul Street’s injury and various player unavailability this will not be the case. However Escape will be on a high following this result and will expect nothing less than a win next week.

Escape FC Men Of The Match: Alan Street & Gareth Waterhouse – Hard to pick 1 stand out performer between these 2. Alan now has 2 goals in 2 games and absolutely faultless at the back again, Gareth, a constant threat in front of goal and took his goal extremely well.

Escape FC Donkey Of The Match: James Girkin – There were no Donkey’s in this match and James only has it as I know he will see the funny side... Purely for his “sublime” header in the 2nd half..... “Where’s it gone, Where’s it gone”....... Donk... There it is Jimmy.

Escape FC Miss Of The Match: Simon Levi – A bit harsh this week but by Simon’s high standards, he should have put away that “Potential” Goal Of The Season.