1 Sept 10 - Hartley Wintney 1 Cove 1

Cove Youth SYL played their first league game last night away at Hartley Wintney – with only two of last season’s team still playing and Captain Rob still absent through injury there were many questions to be answered. The warm-up conducted by last year’s Captain Matt Wise and Assistant Coach “ Big John” certainly put the boys through their paces and the dressing room was full of apprehensive faces as the kick-off neared.

With players new to each other and in some case their positions the defensive line-up faced a torrid first-quarter with Hartley Wintney missing a couple of early chances. However as the game progressed James “ I am a midfielder” Kelly well and truly outed himself as a central defender and both he and stand- in Captain Tom Kelly (no relation) grew in confidence at the back. Solid work from full-backs Jayson “haircut” Dalton and George helped the team cope well with H.W.’s tricky wingers.

The “Fulham Massive” (Bez and Yash), despite not getting the skin-tight lycra shirts they had requested, made the midfield a battle - along with the excellent Harvey and Tom Gibbons and experienced James Shaftoe – who went onto the pitch with an insightful piece of advice from manager Martin Harris “ James, just do your thing” ringing in his ears. Up front Matt Beales worked tirelessly to try and break through Hartley’s defence but the score stayed at 0-0.

The second half saw Hartley Wintney catch Cove cold in the first five minutes with an excellent through ball which was tucked into the far corner, however although rocked by this Cove battled back and started to move the ball around quicker and pushed H.W. back towards their own goal.

After a change of personnel bringing Aaron, Kyle and Paul into the game a lofted ball into the box caused confusion amongst the opposition’s defence and whether the threat of having to listen to “Old People’s Music” on the way back in the car was a contributing factor we will never know but Yash managed to get the ball in the back of the net. This seemed to upset Hartley Wintney’s flow and Cove came close to stealing all three points when another superb run by Harvey at a full-back ended in him being upended and the referee pointed to the Penalty spot only to change his mind after consulting with his assistant. Hartley also came close from a well struck free-kick but were denied by an excellent save from Chris pushing the ball away from the danger zone.

All in all it was a happy dressing room after the match with every player contributing to a pleasing first game – much work to do but some encouraging signs.