First Team v St Lawrence

3 goals in the last 10 minutes were enough to ensure that Broadfields were not dumped out of the MCFL Senior Open Cup at the first hurdle.
The boys started slowly but gradually got in to their rhythm.  Unfortunately there was no end product in the final third and the Broadfields defence found themselves playing the majority of the half in their own half.  Half hour in and St Lawrence took the lead curtsey of a gifted free kick from Broadfields near the touchline.  A whipped cross and poor defending was enough for St Lawrence to see the ball cross the line past Gary White.  Moments after this Broadfields yet again saw themselves on the back foot when a ball was not dealt with in behind the defence and St Lawrence managed to bundle it in the net despite two occasions of offside in a 5 second spell.  2-0 to the home side.
Broadfields then started playing and kept their shape, something they hadn’t managed to do after 35 minutes played.  A 5 pass exchangeable move then saw Dene Gardner run in behind the St Lawrence defence to cooly slot away to make it 2-1 to the home side at half time.
A very strong team talk was had at half time, which purely listed about 10 things we hadn’t done / been doing in the first half. 
The second half saw Broadfields play most the game in the oppositions half but it was 15 minutes in when St Lawrence scored again.  The home midfielder managed to find himself free in the box from a corner to make it 3-1. 
Broadies then introduced Jack Sikora and Chris Hibbs and continued to create opportunities but time was running out.  A few positional changes saw balls being played in behind the St Lawrence defence and with 6 minutes to go, Billy Smith touched home a cross from the left.  Broadfields pushed straight after but found themselves lagging in defence but Lee Holland was able to catch up with the talented forward to make a last ditch tackle and keep the score at 3-2 with 2 minutes to go.  As a result Holland was unable to continue and Liam Bird was bought on for the final few minutes.  Yet again a long ball found its way in to the St Lawrence half and Lee Gardner picked it up inside the 18 yard box on the right hand side to hit a bullet of a strike into the stanch of the St Lawrence net. 
The St Lawrence midfielder who had already been booked was then caught giving verbal to the referee and St Lawrence found themselves with 10 men and extra time looked set in stone.  However, Broadies had other ideas and immediately hunted the ball down for the tricky Billy Smith to beat 2 men and produce a finish of pure class as he dinked the ball over the keeper for Broadies to win the game in normal time 4-3. 
Not a convincing win but the boys must learn that they are unable to play football on bad pitches.  They managed to dig themselves out of a big hole this afternoon and the home team will felt hard done by as they created as many chances as Broadfields did, if not more!
Good luck to St Lawrence for the remainder of the season.  Some talented players, well drilled and we wish them the best of the future. 
 
Report – R. Duffy
Squad  – White, Holland (Bird), Duffy, Nye, Henry (Sikora), Forbes (Hibbs), Gardner, Smith, Gardner, Underwood, Upton.  Not used - Callanan