Dean Thomas picked a team full of youth and fringe players for the Farleigh Rovers game on Tuesday evening. The game started out being a midfield battle and both teams had chances to go forward, but the stalemate was broken by a Farleigh Rovers through ball which was chipped over Will Dukes to make it 1-0. Unfortunately not long after City had gone one down this became 2-0 down with a defensive mix up. City started to come back into the game and with a good cross from the right hand side Darren Evans headed into the net to make it 2-1. The game then returned to the midfield battle it was earlier, but Farleigh Rovers broke into the penalty box one on one, but City defender Taylor Scipio did a fantastic goal saving tackle to stop City going further behind. At the end of the half good City pressure caused the Farleigh Rovers keeper to lose the ball and the resulting shot was chipped over the keeper just to see it go over the bar and the referee blew for halftime.
The 2nd half started most positively for City with good pressure on the Farleigh Rovers defence and goal keeper producing a corner for city which was then cleared by Farleigh, but the game came back to the midfield battle which Farleigh Rovers come out stronger with pressure on the City defence and Farleigh scored a lucky deflected goal to make it 3-1. Nathan Davis who had come on in the 2nd half for City unfortunately pulled up with what looked like a hamstring injury and left the field of play. Farleigh scored a fourth goal with a good shot from just inside the box to make 4-1. City added pressure in the last 10 minutes, with Julian Amoruso putting some great shots towards goal, one of them was well saved and another shot hitting the woodwork which dipped to near catch out the Farleigh Rovers keeper. The game ended with a 4-1 win for Farleigh Rovers.
Ian Plested interviewed manager Dean Thomas after the disappointing 4-1 defeat at Farleigh Rovers:
Dean’s reaction to a not very good evening in Farleigh
Line up: Dukes, Ryan, Unwin, Scipio, Clayman, Zandi, Evans, Mcphail, Woods, Funes, Fitzsimmons
Subs used – Gooden, Ford, Mitchell, Davis, Roberts, Amorouso.
City play Dulwich Hamlet tonight (Wednesday) with what is expected to be a very strong team to face the newly promoted Ryman Premier team. Rutland Walk, Catford, SE6 4LG.
