Domineering Display Decides Duel

Broxbourne Mens 2s continued their high scoring record with an 8-0 win over 10-man Royston 2s on Saturday.

With Adrian Crawley away on an elderly retreat in Bognor, the Mens 2s brought in Josh Chapman, recovering from a terrible front-thigh injury, to fill the void in defence. Though not fit to start, Chapman's professional approach was felt from the meet-time, having the only 100% record this season of being on-time. Dan Copues shock off his own poor tardiness record, with the new mantra of "you can never be too early".

Broxbourne flew into the lead early on, Kris Prentice out-pacing the defence to slip the ball between the keeper's legs. Scott Weedon doubled the lead shortly after following ingenious play from Copues, benefiting from arriving on-time to be more awake. Weedon's form and goalscoring records continue to improve, becoming the person to rely upon when a tap-in is required.

Dan Ball scored the third, trickling the ball past the keeper's outstretched leg. Ball's familiar fist-pump celebration was quicker than his ball pace, but a beautiful demonstration of how much the goal meant to him. A just reward for his constant renditions of the coach's recently trained one-touch techniques.

Chapman, now on the pitch albeit in a lower gear than normal, stepped up for a short corner taking Tom Evans' normal shooting duties as Evans was relied upon to be the stopper. Chapman continued Evans' goal scoring technique though with a thunderous shot that the keeper could not prevent from crossing the line. Evans however got on the scoresheet from open play before half-time, taking the play to the right of the D before hitting across the keeper into the bottom left of the goal.

Mark Pannell's half-time talk evolved from his 3Ds (dirty/distribution/decisions) to add the fourth....DISH. Encouragement for the defence to both resemble a dish in formation, and to dish the ball around, paid off as Broxbourne kept a significantly high percentage of possession.

Dan Henry continued his scoring record with a powerful strike before a good team goal was finished by Kris Prentice following a smart ball from Henry. Prentice then became provider, with a final pass in another fine team effort for Weedon to add his second from close distance.

Broxbourne had a chance for one or two more goals, both with Stu Kopsis in the shooting position, but the pressure was too high on both occassions and Kopsis provided as much contribution as Dan Podmore, the lonely goalkeeper whose only two touches were sideline hits.

Next week, Broxbourne take on Rickmansworth at home (1.30pm push back). With the top 5 teams in the league on the same points, Broxbourne need to take the 3 points to keep within the peloton and aim for a strong push to the line in the second half of the season.