| Match Report
Sunday 7th March and it's kick off time for the Frank Alldis Cup, the last remaining Cup competition left for Bilbao to win this season. This cup takes a separate league format with each of the 6 teams playing once and then the top team in each group playing in the semi-final. So with two Premier league sides to come it was important to get off to a good start against our league strugglers Kings Park Rangers.
The team lined up in the most attacking style ever with a back 3 including normal winger Paul Fagen alongside Eddy and Kyd with Wilf moved into a midfield three and Jenks taking the role alongside Denny. So how would Bilbao react after the gutting cup semi-defeat and without our skipper, well the response was pretty good actually.
Right from the kick off we attacked and played some nice football down both flanks, something unheard of in the cup defeat, with our right wing looking particularly sharp with Phil, Ben and Jenks regularly triple teaming them to good effect. Now bearing in mind we scored a fair few goals today you'll have to forgive if I've confused any goals or got them in the wrong order but I simply couldn't keep count.
The breakthrough came early and in typical style as young Denny was played in and beat the keeper for his 27th goal of the season.This got us in the mood and settled all nerves from here until the end of the first half we played really well with a nice mixture of long & short passing and plenty of pressure resulting in a series of corners, from one of these we scored our second with a swirling cross to the back of the box Wilf levered their defender out of the way to allow Phil the crash into the back of the net for his 7th of the season, this was followed by Jenks first of the game where we played it out from the back, down to our effective right wing, and inside to Denny who put Andy through one on one with the keeper, and slotted it in at the near post.
Was a routing on the cards for Bilbao in a word yes !!! By the end of the first half it was 4-0 nil with the best of the goals falling to Andy Jenkins after some work playing the ball out of defense from the left Steve curled a beautiful ball round the defence and into the area for Jenks to lift it over the advancing keeper. Overall a great half offensively with some good defending from Eddy to manage thier only real threat, ably supported by Kyd and Paul who probably never even knew he could play at the back, Obviously though we have to have to comedy defending moment at some point this week it was Kyd after the own goal in the cup semi which he could do nothing about, today as a cross came in from the right his attempt to block the ball saw it balloon up off his foot and just over the bar with John well beaten... a big sigh of relief was omitted from Kyd !!!
At half time the gaffer seemed fairly pleased but insisted on more movement to make the most of the slick passing, while kyd made way to give Karl a deserved run-out. Our form deteriorated in the first period of the second half, with us so keen to score goals that we forgot to play the football to get us there and ended up playing the direct game again. This allowed KPR and 10 minute spell of good possession that resulted in thier striker beating John in a one on one to make the score 4-1. However this spurred us back on and apart from John making a decent penalty save to gain justice for Bilbao after a dodgy decision from the ref we went on to rattle in another three goals. Ben apprently reckons he got his shoulder to a misjudged defensive header and therefore claimed the goal... the other 10 Bilbao players all disaggreed but gave in and allowed him to claim his second of the season. Ross also got on the score sheet as Carls throw to Phil was launched into the danger area with a sort of overhead kick / sideways off his shin type thing, which was flicked on by a defender, resulting in Ross winning the race and sliding for the ball under the advancing keeper. Finally just to show off Steve scored another from 25 yards with a well hit Beckham-esque bender, although the shite goalkeeper did him a few favours here. Jonsey and Calver also came on during the second half for Denny & Steve and put in good performances... well Calver did, Jonsey managed an impressive 4 touches... not bad for a fiver, all were good touches though.
Overall this was a great first-half performance and a decent second half effort, the scoreline could have been ever more impressive but Denny had a shot saved from 5 yards after already having beaten the keeper and Wilf somehow missed a header from 2 yards. So were off and running in the newly formatted FA Cup and this will greatly help repair confidence after 2 defeats on the bounce. Notable performances today came from an "Under the weather" Eddy & his defensive colleauge Paul, some lovely skills from Ross and a good second-half cameo from Carl "the Animal" Rose, his tackle had to be seen to be beleived, I beleive it even gained a ROCK sign from linesman Kyd... worthy praise indeed !!!
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