karthoarse
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A game at last!After all the frost and the frozen pitches, and all the turkey and mince pies, finally got back to football tonight in a friendly at Hythe.
With most of the first team squad on show, supplemented by a few of the younger players, it was really a game of two halves - City were the better side in the first half, but Hythe were much the stronger in the second.
City had the better of the early chances and played really well first half, Royston Gough nearly made contact with a cross from the right, Dave Read shot over from afar and Michael Seager had a long range effort saved. A couple of chances for Hythe as well and a free kick from outside the box from Callum Mcgeehan had the Hythe keeper scrambling across his goal to see it just go wide. Gough opened the scoring, speeding on to a through ball, he spun and curled the ball round the advancing keeper from the edge of the box just inside his right hand post. Hythe huffed and puffed without really creating too many clear cut chances and Gough almost made it 2-0 just failing to meet a cross from the right with a flying header. Hythe equalised almost on half time when a break down their left found a forward one on one with our keeper who couldn't prevent being lobbed from the edge of the box as he came out to try to make the save.
Second half was a different story, some team changes from City saw them have the first real chance with Wayne Fittall having an effort saved. After that Hythe clearly upped a gear and were much the stronger second half. Danny Black, in goal as one of the team changes at half time was by far the busier keeper in the second half and made some excellent saves including two or three at the feet of oncoming forwards, in additon Tony Jackson cleared a goal bound effort as the last defender. The second half was continually broken up particularly by Hythe making several substituions, in fact bringing on enough subs to sink a navy! They had several chances to score, but some good defending kept them at bay until they finally scored the winning goal with about 15 minutes left, when a shot just sneaked in at the far post, almost in slow motion. On the balance of play, Hythe probably deserved the win, particulary for their better second half performance, but City can easilly claim the moral victory as once again, they gave the much higher placed team plenty to think about and gave a good account of themselves.
Back to the school (yuk!) Saturday for the more serious stuff - weather permitting of course!
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cityaddick
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Thanks for the report the trusty old karthoarse.
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Mr Winterburn
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Was well impressed by the young lad wearing the number nine shirt in the 2nd half as well,considering his size he was getting stuck in and he show some quality touches when we were going forward.
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karthoarse
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I believe that was Adam Woollcott, he also has a good turn of speed.
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