Swanage Town & Herston FC

Match Report: Vs Okeford Utd
Our stop-start season got going again on Saturday with a good 6-2 win against Okeford.
We got off to a flyer with the impressive Sam Battrick's powerful shot proving to much for the visiting keeper who could only parry it in - this should have opened the floodgates but we took our foot off the gas and let Okeford back in. They tested our back four of Melvin, Ashley, Jamie and Peter (our 8th different back four in 8 games) on more then one occasion. We went 2 up when Chris Speight, who had a superb game in centre midfield, was taken out just inside the area after good work by right winger John Grover. The evergreen Peter Hollywood calmly sent the keeper the wrong way - 2-0.
Again we should have built on this but we let Okeford reply pretty much straight away to halve the score -  2-1
The midfield of John, Jimmy, Chris and Gavin (our 8th different midfield in 8 games) were trying to play football but were often frustrated by the awful surface which caused plenty of misplaced passes but when we got it right it was like watching Brazil !!
It was a great passing move which led to our 3rd goal, a neat interchange involving Chris, our new Italian signing Deano Stancio Wellsio and Sam Battrick, resulting in a fine goal for the latter to put us 3-1 up at half time.
We had to make a change at half time so Dean made way for Tom Galton who partnered Sam up front (our 657th different strike partnership in 8 games). Again we let Okeford back into the game, when they scored early in the 2nd half, beating our impressive keeper Charlie Parsons with a crisp shot. Charlie, who has just turned 16, had a great game in the sticks and is definitely one for the future. The club is blessed with 5 or 6 fantastic keepers at the moment and I know Jason will be pleased that Charlie is getting games at a senior level. Their goal seemed to get us going again and we soon made it 4-2 when Ashley scored a great far-post header which looped over the keeper - it's good that Ash has decided to play again. He is an asset to the club and could easily step up to the reserves and maybe the 1st team - if he could let the half time rollups go !!
That goal seemed to enable us to relax a bit more and we started having a few long range shots, in particular Chris who saw a long range curler go just wide. The long range efforts paid dividends soon after, when Gavin scored a 25 yarder which flew past the Okeford keeper. 5-2. We made our 2nd change when Judd Huse came on for the tiring Jimmy Drummond after 70 mins. Jimmy is a good player and will be an asset to the club if he can get fit. At times on Saturday he looked like his old self, battling and winning tackles but I think he was frustrated with himself for giving the ball away on occasions. I know only too well how this feels. It really comes down to fitness so he, as have all of us, have got to get to training every week. Thurs 7.30 ;) 
Tom Galton made it 6-2 with 15 minutes left after more good work from John Grover. We had a few more chances and Sam should have got his hat-trick but shot straight at the keeper when clean through. To their credit, Okeford never gave up and only some sharp goalkeeping from Charlie and a goal line clearance from Gav prevented them from scoring a third.
This whole management thing is new to me and I will make mistakes, say the wrong things or not say anything when I should and I can't thank Jimmy Hollywood enough for all his help. We have a good core to the side and everyone who was in the squad on Saturday has played or could play at a higher level.
I believe that if we can get a steady-ish side, we can win this league.

MOM - Gavin Drummond just edged Melvin, John, Charlie and Chris for MOM for a brilliant all round display which was capped with a great goal.