Date: Saturday 21 November
Venue: Belair Park, Dulwich
Starting Line-up: Luke Arnold, Chris Bentley, Oli Watkins, Salty, Joe Mull, Martin Shardlow (C), Adam Fox, John Egan, Joe Coffey, Oli Strudwick
Sub: Tom Burr
The 2’s went into the game with South East London looking to make amends, after the ref gave the dodgiest of peno calls, which robbed then Cubans of all 3 points in the reverse fixture just 3 weeks ago.
Having looked at the mud bath of a pitch it was clear that the usual game plan of keeping the ball on the deck was out the window and we were going to have to “lump” it down the channels for the tireless Joe Coffey and Oli Strudwick to chase down and put their defence to the test.
The opening minutes set the tone and when Oli Watkins slipped twice in 2 minutes, Foxy and John Eagan were definitely questioning their choice of moulds over studs!
The boys in baby blue were clearly up for the battle with Joe Mull and Shards flying into the tackles winning the early exchanges. Tiki taka this was not, and the only real notable action of the first half was a couple of pop shots from the home side which Arnie was equal to. He treated the ball like a ropey bird from infernos and didn’t let it out of his grasp, when it could have easily squirmed away!!!
We started the second half on the front foot and the pressure tolled when Jez whipped in a ball from the right for Oli Strudwick to nonchalantly volley home with the outside of his right peg, one up and exactly what we deserved.
South East came back and their centre back went on a mazy Rio Ferdinand esque run which led to the ball coming into the box and after a scrappy clearance. The ball dropped to their fat lad up top,who, first time, curled it into the top bin.
Then came the 2 minutes that changed the game. A back pass from South East meant an indirect free kick inside their 6 yard box or so we thought, the ref had other ideas. He maintained that it had to be taken from where the pass was played not where the keeper picked it up, joker. He obviously hadn’t seen this classic…
The free kick came to nothing and they hit us on the counter and their big lad was in one on one and slotted it to send them 2-1 up. Cubo heads didn’t drop but as we went in search of the equaliser the game stretched they bagged another to make the final score look much more comfortable than it was. An unfair result on the Cuban’s but as Stevie G says ” we go again” and that’s exactly what we’ll do on Saturday!!
Goal: Oli Strudwick
AFC Cubo 