WE ARE BACK!

Here we go again, another Season ready to go and after a brilliant off season for the boys, they were raring to get started again.

We have had some movement in terms of Players, with Zack, Harry, Stan & George deciding it was time to move on. We have also bought in some fantastic players in Ryan, Alafy, Lewis B and Tian to help strengthen the squad for the upcoming season.

Today we knew we had a tough game ahead of us against a Southwick side who have had back to back promotions & a point to prove.

Starting a newer formation today with a 4-2-1-3, it took the boys a few minutes to get to grips with it but they started off with some great football getting the ball down and doing their best to control the flow and tempo of the game. Southwick tried to keep up and were looking to play balls to their wide men who had a lot of pace but Dean, Cam, Toby and Ryan did a great job of sweeping up any lose ball and were strong in the tackle.

Ryan and Toby did extremely well today building out from the back, utilizing Oliver as the extra man and giving us control of the pace of the game. This allowed Dean and Cam to push forward and Lewis and Jack to get involved in the centre.

There were some chances in the first 20 minutes with Dorian, Stephen, Sam and Kieron all coming close to opening the scoring , hitting the bar twice and the post once.

It took a moment of magic from Dean to open the scoring and Oh my was it magic. There was a bit of pinball on the left hand side before Stephen slid the ball into Jack's path. Jack beat his man and delivered a ball into the box but it was cleared out back towards Stephen, who flicked it up and over the defender before laying it back into the path of Dean.
Dean took one step and THWACK! An absolute THUNDERBUGGER of a strike with his left foot from about 30 yards out into the top of the net over the keeper. No celebration from Dean either just shows how humble the lad is, but the boys made sure he was swamped!

From here the boys put their foot on the gas and took the game to Southwick.

Stan and Alafy came in to give Lewis and Sam a bit of a breather as the game was quite physical and they had been knicked a few times. Alafy got involved right away and played a quick 1-2 with Cam before driving at the Southwick defence. He cut back from a great run on the right and played the pass into the path of Dorian. Big D took a touch out of his feet and hit a shot from about 20 yards that flew towards the keeper and bounced just before it went in! 2-0 and a deserved second.

The back 4 were keeping the game in the Southwick half, Sweeping up any loose ball and driving us forward with Toby and Ryan dribbling the ball forward before finding a pass.

HT SOUTHWICK -0 - TD - 2

At the half, the boys spoke to us and told us what they needed to do to finish this game. Mase came on the left side for Stephen, and Ethan came on for Dean with Cam shifting over to Lb. It took a few minutes for the game to get back up to playing pace after the half but we continued to create chances and came close several times through Mase, Alafy and Kieron.

The third goal came from some great battling in the midfield with Stan and Jack before playing the ball into D who took it upon himself to dribble ridiculously past 5 Southwick defenders before rounding the keeper and rolling the ball into the back of the net. 3-0

The boys really started rolling and were causing all sorts of issues to the Southwick defence. Alafy's direct style of play was pushing the Southwick midfield back to their defenders zone and it was from this that we got our 4th. Ryan won the ball and drove forward before playing it into Stan. Stan turned his man and saw Alafy's run and played him in and after taking a touch in front of himself, Alafy hit a great shot from the right hand side of the box to the bottom left hand corner. 4-0

Some more changes were made with Kieron getting a rest after running like a mad man all day, Alafy getting a rest, Jack getting a rest too and Sam, Stephen and Dorian coming back onto the pitch.

It was a combination of the 3 above coming back on that got us the next goal with Sam winning the ball in Midfield before playing it into Stephen. Stephen turned his man and played a great through ball into the path of Big D. Big D took the ball in his stride before lashing a great finish into the top right corner. 5-0

The boys were in cruise control and to top off a fantastic performance, Lewis Stepped up with his Yearly 1st game wonder strike.

Stan who was battling non stop in midfield from the moment he came on, won a free kick just in the Southwick half after being cut down from behind. He got up and quickly laid the ball into the path of Lewis, who took one touch to get the ball out of his feet and Looked up and THWACK! ANOTHER THUNDERBUGGER of a shot from around 40 yards out! The ball flew right into the top right corner and Lewis and the team proceeded to celebrate together before Lew pulled off the Bellingham celebration in front of the Coaching team.

FT Southwick - 0 - TD - 6

A great win for the boys and just the start they needed for the season ahead. A bit rusty in parts but once they got going, they were tough to stop. A massive well done to our New members and also the returning players! Onto the next round of the County cup and a tough match up against Horsham.

We play Saltdean away Thursday in the first League Game.

MOTM- BIG D - A convincing and cut throat performance from Big D with a Hat Trick in the first game. All 3 goals taken extremely well and hopefully a sign of the season to come! Well Done D!

TD Shipley FC

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