Kiss From A Rose

Prince’s Park U21s 2 GPR 3

Valentine’s Day weekend must have brought with it plenty of frustration and “flaccid” performance issues for some as The Salads took 3 crucial points against Prince’s Park, having lost our first fixture against them back in October. It felt like men against boys for much of the game, in more ways than one.

I was confident our morning would show marginal gains, and the team took the early meet time seriously. There was a lot riding on us over the weekend to set the record straight, with sights set on a top 3 finish.

On the contrary, Prince’s Park must have had a harder time getting up for the engagement - this time on a cold and hazy morning with a stiff breeze coming in from the south.

Luckily it didn’t take us long to get into our rhythm. As the opposition struggled to handle our high pressing and possession-focused attacks, they shrivelled into their defensive third.

Even at the other end, it was clear that the opposition striker was compensating for attacking threat with naked aggression. At one point, he just punched Alan after a one-on-one in which he came up short.

Not phased by this incident, we continued pressing, and Jeff had the first big chance of the day, a whipped cross beating the defence, but the ball went narrowly wide.

Then, soon after, Josh, sensing a weak press, took his time and drove his boot through the ball from range. The keeper could only watch as it sailed past him and hit the crossbar. The clearance came back to him on the volley, but his second effort didn’t quite live up to the hype as it rolled out for a throw in.

Despite this, we were well on top. Soon we got our reward. A dizzying passing phase from Alan to Josh to Ant to Andre to Josh ended with a beautiful ping out wide to Rory. He beat his man, and lifted in a cross that Marcus barely had to break stride for. He connected with his head for an inevitable opening goal. 1-0.

In fairness, Prince’s Park did well to provide an immediate response to this, a whipped free-kick from deep landing straight onto the head of an attacker, only for it to skim the top of the bar and go over.

Cool as cucumbers, our reply to this went one better. A long ball rolled towards their box, and under the pressure, their keeper’s clearance fell to Rory, who netted from 30 yards out and into an open goal.

Kindly put, tension had been bubbling all game. A punch, studs flying, a boot ripped from a tackle. But this boiled over when keeper Josh bravely went to ground to smother a shot and ended up on his back, the weight of the attacker following through and taking him out.

Having been promised a game outfield, Oli had to step in, and made an unbelievable save to allow Alan to clear a shot off the line with his first action.

Easy enough, we got back in control with some fantastic possession play. Josh was pulling the strings, and Andre and Tim provided equal parts cover and threat in a beautifully balanced midfield display. Sina and Ant were helping out from wide - we’d never held onto the ball with so much control before.

At the break, we knew that Prince’s Park might retaliate, and that we should keep playing our game, but brace for a response.

Duly, not more than ten minutes after the restart, a free kick from Sina landed nicely for Marcus, who looped it over and Rory dispatched it on the volley to make it 3-0.

Sadly my mid-game notes run out at this point, because where conventional logic would suggest that this would make heads drop, it lit a fire in the opposition. The second half became a grind, and three injuries meant we were short on defensive cover.

For reference, we only had two out-and-out defenders to begin the game as it was, so we’d done brilliantly to keep the ball out of our net. A quick break from a missed opportunity to get a fourth made it 3-1.

Understanding the threat, we sat a little deeper, but am offside goal deepened the nerves. With 10 minutes to go, it became 3-2, legally this time, owing to a good strike outside the box. After such a solid performance, it was time to dig deep and hold out.

Coming into the final minutes of the game, a cross into the box wasn’t cleared, and their left back - who had been making choice remarks all half - had a one-on-one with Oli. With the three points at his mercy, he went for goal.

King Oli stood tall, stretched his arms, and parried it to make a game-winning save at the death. Having come on and being forced to adapt to the game, it was a fitting contribution to the win.

Only after a few agonising minutes did the final whistle came. What had looked like a comfortable victory 50 minutes in ended up as one of the hardest fought victories of the campaign, one made all the more sweet by the implications for the league table, and the gracious acceptance of Prince’s Park in conceding defeat.

For now we sit on top of the division, and, although it’s unlikely we’ll stay there, we’ve proven without question that we deserve to be where we are as a club. The lads did the badge proud today, excelling in all areas of the pitch and bringing some real talent to a fixture that had no guarantee of victory.

Feelin’ good.

MOTM 💫 = The keepers deserve it for their collective effort in keeping out the chances they did. Josh delivered a quiet masterclass in midfield that on another day would have seen him get the nod. Rory was at his best, a force out wide and down the middle too. The defence deserve a shout out too for keeping their heads amid injury and personnel challenges.

DOTD 👀 = Richard’s head.