On what started as looking like it could be a cold morning ahead turned into glorious sunny conditions for a game of football. Our second league match of the season and our second 11 a side match, however this time we had to squeeze onto a 9 a side pitch, and the lack of space didn’t make it easy for either team and set the style of the match.

The first 10 minutes had Magpies taking control of the game, however Rovers put in the aggressive and combative approach that Coach Greg asked for, and while the possession stats favoured Magies in the early stages Rovers started finding success with a few counter attacks, one of which we thought had resulted in a goal, however it was correctly ruled out as the ref had already whistled when the ball had gone out for a corner, no VAR required.

The deadlock didn’t last long with Yunus Chowdhury playing the ball down the right wing to Harry Barrett who cut into the box and deftly finished to put Rovers 0-1 up.

The goal gave Rovers the confidence to start taking control and the tide of possession turned in Rovers favour and Magpies defence we now feeling the pressure, but the lack of space started to show as things become more scrappy for both teams and we started to play the long ball out of defence to ease pressure. However in the 17th minute George O’Connor received the ball in the middle of the box and being unable to turn with a defender up against him laid it back to Oscar Bratt who hits the ball on the volley with a connection that was as sweet as nut and left the keeper with no chance, to make it 0-2.

The rest of the first half saw the continuation of scrappy football that was more reminiscent of The Crazy Gang in the 90s than the 1970’s Dutch total football, but we saw strong co-ordination from the Rovers defence of Benji Searing, Yunus Chowdhury, Thomas Hunt & Luke Robinson, being vocal when outnumbered and ensuring tight marking that enabled us to see the match through to the half time mark with the 0-2 score line intact.

The second half kicked off and Magpies looked like they were hungry to get themselves back into the match and Rovers hadn’t quite switched on from half time, meaning Rovers defence were back feeling the pressure, and forcing Tim Watson to make a number of saves, including an excellent tip over the bar. In the 50th minute a scrappy ping pong in midfield the ball fell to Yunus Chowdhury just inside the Magies half on the right and another sweet strike put the ball into the inside side netting of the Magpies goal before bouncing out, there was a moment where all breaths where held until the ref confirmed the goal and Rovers had a 0-3 lead.

Magpies still had the determination that they started the second half with and hit back straight away, Rovers suffering from the long term issue of not being able to secure the ball from our own goal kicks, the Magpies player brought the ball down onto his chest and fires it straight into the back of the Rovers goal giving Magpies hope of a comeback.

As we reached the mid point of the second half Rovers started to get the ball onto the floor and passing it, Aaron Rownsley and George O’Connor combining well with a couple of one twos that started to open up the left side of the pitch, and it was this move that brought about Rovers fourth goal in the 65th minute. Aaron receiving a pass from the battling Theo Faulkner, plays it to George who retuned it to Aaron forcing the Magpies left back to make a last ditch tackle giving away a throw in. The resulting throw in is controlled my Luke Robinson in the box, getting away a shot that the Magpies keeper saved into the path of George O’Connor who hits home Rovers fourth.

All credit goes to Magpies who recognised that the game was closer than the scoreline suggested, kept the pressure on Rovers, and it took a series of strong tackles from Thomas Hunt, Lucas Kirk and Seb Blake to keep Magpies out, until the 76th minute when a shot from just outside the left of the box left Tim with no chance and suddenly the Magpies gave themselves some hope at 2-4.

That hope and the momentum from the Magpies second goal was showing now and the hard work put in by Rovers was showing as they began to tire, and with the final kick of the game Magpies scored their third to bring it to a final score of 3-4 that was more representative of how close this game really was.

Well done to Rovers for aggression and determination to get our first win of the season, and well done to Oscar Bratt for his Man of the Match performance.